What support looks like?

From the book – Chapter 31: Later-Life and Dementia-Related Care

What support looks like

• Regular social contact — family, friends, community groups, faith communities.

• Physical activity fitted to ability — walking, chair exercises, yoga.

• Meaningful activity — hobbies, volunteering, mentoring.

• Management of physical illness and pain.

• Cognitive stimulation — reading, puzzles, conversation, new skills.

• Caregiver support and respite.

• Professional help for depression, anxiety, or behavioural symptoms in dementia.

Respect, inclusion, and dignity are essential. Older adults are not a burden; they are members of families and societies.

Read the full chapter – Chapter 31: Later-Life and Dementia-Related Care

Stories from real life

• Just Getting Old, Said the Family – Mr Hargreaves, seventy-two, had been a head teacher in Manchester. Since retiring two years ago and losing his wife last winter, he had stopped going to…
• Where Did I Put the Keys, Again? – Mrs Lakshmi, seventy-eight, lived with her son Arvind and his wife in Chennai. For the last year she had been repeating questions, leaving the gas on…
• The Carer Who Forgot Herself – Grace, fifty-eight, had cared for her husband Tom in Cork since his dementia diagnosis three years earlier. He no longer knew the day, woke at night,…
• The Empty Flat on Raja Street – Mr Fernandes, seventy, lived alone in Mumbai since his wife died and his children moved abroad. He ate lunch at a different tiffin place each day…

More on this topic: Ageing well, memory loss and dementia – caring for elders

More questions

• Understanding the family myth – later life and dementia
• What is true: late-life depression is…?
• What is true: dementia is…?
• What is true: depression can…?
• What is true: ramesh’s family learned…?
• What is true: caregivers need…?
• Just Getting Old, Said the Family – what this story teaches, the signs and what to do
• Where Did I Put the Keys, Again? – what this story teaches, the signs and what to do
• The Carer Who Forgot Herself – what this story teaches, the signs and what to do
• The Empty Flat on Raja Street – what this story teaches, the signs and what to do