Dementia Care: Discover the Perfect Doctor for Your Parent's Needs

Article Summary

This article provides advice on how to find the right doctor to manage a parent's dementia.

Key takeaways:

  1. It is important for someone with dementia to establish and maintain contact with a doctor who can monitor their health.
  2. Three different types of doctors commonly treat patients with dementia: primary-care physicians, neurologists, and geriatricians.
  3. When looking for a doctor, consider if your parent already has a primary-care physician, how much experience treating dementia the doctor has, if friends can recommend a primary-care physician, if your parent has other medical conditions, and if you live near a university hospital or large medical center.

Introduction

Many adults don’t go to the doctor regularly or have ongoing relationships with primary-care physicians. But once someone is diagnosed with dementia, it’s important for them to establish and maintain contact with a doctor who can monitor their health.

Why is consistent care necessary for an aging parent with dementia? A doctor who sees your parent regularly can:

  • Keep tabs on their dementia. Regularly scheduled appointments can help doctors track how dementia progresses over time, says geriatrician David Hackethorn, MD, assistant professor of internal medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center in College Station. Going with your parent to appointments can help you learn about and better manage dementia-related behavioral problems.
  • Manage other health conditions. An older adult with dementia may receive care for other chronic health conditions. “The patient has other disease processes – may be hypertension, diabetes, heart failure – that need to be attended to,” Hackethorn says.
  • Communicate about your mental health. Caring for someone with dementia may lead to emotional burnout. You may not look for signs, but your parent’s doctor may. “I oftentimes will ask family members, ‘Are you getting depressed?’ so I’m actually doing a dual visit, primarily directed at the patient, but also being very akin to what is going on with the caregiver,” Hackethorn says.

Types of doctors for dementia patients

Three different types of doctors commonly treat patients with dementia:

  • Primary-care physicians, who are sometimes called general practitioners or internists; they treat adults of all ages and manage a variety of health conditions, including dementia
  • Neurologists, who are specialists who treat conditions affecting the brain and nervous system, including dementia
  • Geriatricians, who are primary-care physicians who received additional specialized training to treat older adults and the health conditions that may affect people aged 65 and over, including dementia

Author Bio

Lisa Fields is a passionate healthcare writer and advocate for better senior care in America. This article has been reviewed by TJ Falohun, co-founder and CEO of Olera. He is a trained biomedical engineer and writes about the cost of healthcare in America for seniors.

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