Devices can help at-home caregivers of dementia patients

More than 16 million Americans voluntarily look after their parents or other loved ones who suffer from a memory-stealing disease. New products can make the job a bit easier.

Q. I quit my full-time office job last year and started working from home so I could care for my mom, who has been diagnosed with dementia.

Everything had mostly gone OK, until recently, when I started to find her walking around the house, the garage or even out on the lawn while I was working in my home office and didn’t hear her get up from her bed or chair.

What can I do? I am afraid she might get hurt, but there’s not enough money to hire an in-house caregiver to watch her while I’m working.

A. I sympathize with your situation, in part because I had the same problem when my own mother began slowly slipping into dementia before she passed away several years ago.

Sadly, there’s still no cure for dementia or its evil offspring, Alzheimer’s disease. An astonishing 16.1 million Americans provide unpaid care for victims of dementia or Alzheimer’s to parents or other loved ones, according to the nonprofit Alzheimer’s Association. Most of those caregivers, like you, live with their parents at home.

Fortunately, several companies have recently invented products that can help you keep victims of a memory-stealing disease safer in the home.

Amy Goyer, a caretaking expert and author of AARP’s Juggling Life, Work and

Caregiving, suggests using strategically placed alarms and monitors that will alert you when your mother is moving.

“For example, a bed or chair-pad alarm will go off the second her weight is removed from it, and a floor-mat alarm sounds when she steps on it,” Goyer said.

“Motion-sensor alarms will alert you when she walks by, and door alarms will sound when a door is opened or closed,” she said. “Audio monitors can help, too, and video cameras you can view on a smartphone or tablet can give you reassurance at a glance.”

Caregiving can be stressful, so consider giving both yourself and your mother a break by occasionally taking her to an adult day care center. Your mom will have a chance to socialize and participate in brain-stimulating activities, while you can enjoy some much-needed “me time.”

The average daily cost of eight to 10 hours of care at an adult day care facility is $69, according to a report by AARP, and Medicaid or private insurance may cover part of the visit.

You can get more help and suggestions by calling the Alzheimer’s Association toll-free at 800-272-3900 or by visiting www.alz.org.

REAL ESTATE TRIVIA Unpaid caretakers spent 18.4 billion hours looking after their parents or others with dementia last year, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. If paid at current rates, they would have earned $232 billion.

Q. My husband and I found a terrific home that’s “for sale by owner.” If we make an offer on the house, could we make it through our own real estate agent or would we have to deal directly with the sellers?

A. You have the right to make an offer through a professional agent, even though the sellers are trying to sell the property without the help of a sales professional of their own.

Most sellers who choose the for-saleby-owner route do so because they don’t want to pay the commission that a professional agent would charge. Their homes are usually listed in newspaper or online advertisements as a “FSBO” (pronounced “fizz-bo”).

Though FSBO sellers don’t want to pay a 5 or 6 percent sales commission, they’ll often agree to pay a 3 percent fee to an agent who produces a qualified buyer. If the sellers in your particular situation won’t agree, you’ll have to pay the real estate pro with cash from your own pocket if your offer is accepted.

Q. I know the state of New York was named to honor England’s Duke of York about 400 years ago. But how did New Jersey get its name?

A. The origin of the state’s name dates back to 1609. That’s when legendary explorer Henry Hudson, a British national working for the Dutch, sailed through Newark Bay in 1609. He claimed what today is most of the tri-state area for the Dutch and called the region “Nieuw Nederland.”

The English took control of the region in 1664, during the second Anglo-Dutch War, and slowly began carving it up into separate colonies. One plum seaside area was renamed New Jersey, after the Isle of Jersey. The latter is a small 45-square-mile island in the English Channel that today separates southern England from northern France.

Interestingly, New York’s name is a bit out of date. Though the Brits indeed named it to honor the Duke of York, he later ascended to the throne and was crowned King James II of England.

“Jimmy, Jimmy,” though, just wouldn’t have the same ring to it as “New York, New York.”

ABOUT LIVING TRUSTS David Myers’ booklet “Straight Talk About Living Trusts” provides the information readers need to determine whether forming an inexpensive trust would be a good idea, based on their individual circumstances.

To get a copy, send $4 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to D. Myers/ Trust, P.O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231-4405. Net proceeds this month will be donated to the American Red Cross to help victims of the Southeast’s Hurricane Florence. Send questions to David Myers, P.O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231-2960; and we’ll try to respond in a future column.