{"id":30472,"date":"2025-06-25T15:16:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T15:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30472"},"modified":"2025-06-25T15:25:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T15:25:30","slug":"what-to-do-when-a-loved-one-is-diagnosed-with-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30472","title":{"rendered":"What to Do When a Loved One is Diagnosed With Dementia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Families and experts share their best advice for navigating and coping.<\/p>\n

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About four years ago, Madhavi Phadke, a philanthropy director in Westford, Mass., noticed her mother, Chanda Bhawalkar, was withdrawing. Ms. Bhawalkar had been an avid reader and talented cook who walked daily and regularly texted with her friends back home in Maharashtra, India. But in her late 70s, she began spending more time alone in her room and seemed aloof and often bored, Ms. Phadke said. She became agitated when visitors dropped by, a surprising response from someone who had always maintained a vibrant social life.<\/p>\n

At first, Ms. Phadke thought these changes were just normal signs of aging, but as things got worse, she took her mother for a medical evaluation. About two years ago, Ms. Bhawalkar was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

It gave Ms. Phadke clarity, but also feelings of deep sadness and helplessness, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like today\u2019s going to be the best day for the rest of her life,\u201d she remembered thinking. But she also wanted to \u201cmake the most of what we can\u201d with her mother\u2019s remaining time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to know how to proceed when a family member is diagnosed with dementia. Clinicians suggest sorting out logistics early on: appointing a trusted person<\/a> to make medical decisions on the family member\u2019s behalf, planning future care and writing financial directives. But you also have to prepare for the emotional weight of watching a loved one lose pieces of themselves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s the mental equivalent of death by a thousand paper cuts,\u201d said Don Siegel, of Silver Spring, Md., whose wife, Bette, died in 2024 after several years with Lewy body dementia. Families are \u201cleft with someone you can\u2019t recognize, except in very brief moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times asked dementia specialists and seven families who have faced the disease to share advice for moving forward after a diagnosis.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

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Families and experts share their best advice for navigating and coping.About four years ago, Madhavi Phadke, a philanthropy director in Westford, Mass., noticed her mother, Chanda Bhawalkar, was withdrawing. Ms. Bhawalkar had been an avid reader and talented cook who walked daily and regularly texted with her friends back home in Maharashtra, India. But in her late 70s, she began spending more time alone in her room and seemed aloof and often bored, Ms. Phadke said. She became agitated when visitors dropped by, a surprising response from someone who had always maintained a vibrant social life.At first, Ms. Phadke thought these changes were just normal signs of aging, but as things got worse, she took her mother for a medical evaluation. About two years ago, Ms. Bhawalkar was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease.It gave Ms. Phadke clarity, but also feelings of deep sadness and helplessness, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like today\u2019s going to be the best day for the rest of her life,\u201d she remembered thinking. But she also wanted to \u201cmake the most of what we can\u201d with her mother\u2019s remaining time.It\u2019s difficult to know how to proceed when a family member is diagnosed with dementia. Clinicians suggest sorting out logistics early on: appointing a trusted person to make medical decisions on the family member\u2019s behalf, planning future care and writing financial directives. But you also have to prepare for the emotional weight of watching a loved one lose pieces of themselves.\u201cIt\u2019s the mental equivalent of death by a thousand paper cuts,\u201d said Don Siegel, of Silver Spring, Md., whose wife, Bette, died in 2024 after several years with Lewy body dementia. Families are \u201cleft with someone you can\u2019t recognize, except in very brief moments.\u201dThe New York Times asked dementia specialists and seven families who have faced the disease to share advice for moving forward after a diagnosis.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30474,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30472"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30475,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30472\/revisions\/30475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}