Are you dementia aware?

By Tracey Maxfield

Dementia Aware: what you need to know about financial, legal and health-care planning

Dementia aware: what you need to know, is a series of articles about dementia to help inform, support and guide people with dementia, their caregivers and family.
 
In B.C., approximately 70,000 people have dementia, and sadly, this number will grow as the proportion of seniors increases over the next 10-15 years.

Here in the Okanagan, we have one of the largest aging/dementia populations in B.C.

Dementia is an umbrella term to include many different conditions that cause problems with thinking, memory and problem solving (cognitive impairment).

There are over 100 types of dementia, the most common types are:

• Alzheimer’s disease (64 per cent of Canadians)
• vascular dementia (20 per cent)
• Lewy body dementia including Parkinson’s disease with dementia (5-15 per cent)
• frontotemporal dementia (2-5 per cent)
• mixed dementia
• Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.

What you need to know….

Although these types of dementia cause damage to different areas of the brain, they share many symptoms, which are characteristic of dementia, regardless of cause, including:

• progressive memory loss
• increasing impaired reasoning and decision making
• difficulty with communication
• increasing difficulty making financial, legal and health-care decisions.

Finding out you have dementia can be an upsetting and frightening time for you and your caregivers and family.

As your health changes, and your dementia progresses, there may be a time when you are no longer able to make specific decisions about your care. 

Therefore, it is important that talk with your caregivers (and family) about your wishes so that they may act in your best interests.

Personal planning lets you make your own legally enforceable decisions with people you trust, and prevents the Government and others becoming involved in your personal and private affairs.

The sooner you make decisions about your health care, your finances and your estate, the more in control you will feel and the better prepared you are for the future.

What you need to know...

• You should have a will prepared by a lawyer or notary
• You should have filed your current income tax return
• You should set up an enduring power of attorney to manage your financial and legal affairs. This will help avoid having the court appoint another person to manage your affairs
• You should set up a representation agreement to manage your personal care and health-care decisions
• You should complete an advance directive which is a written summary of your wishes and instructions for future health care. This is very important, as it will guide your caregiver and health care team to plan care based on your wishes
• For free assistance completing tax returns, see www.cra-arc.gc.ca/volunteer
• For free legal advice about making a will, contact DIAL–A-LAW Library at 1-800-663-1919
• To find a lawyer or notary in your area, try the Yellow Pages or www.notaries.bc.ca;  or www.lawsociety.bc.ca
• For more information on power of attorney, representation agreements and advance care planning see www.nidus.ca.

Tracey Maxfield is a dementia consultant and advocate with over 35 years experience working with dementia populations in the U.K. and Canada. She is is lobbying the federal and provincial governments and local municipalities to respond to the dementia crisis in B.C., especially in the Okanagan. She can be reached at [email protected].

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.