Anyone able to keep alzheimer spouse home until death

Hospice services were a lifesaver for me to enable me to keep my DW at home through the end. They provided help for about 9 or 10 months. As long as there was some level of continuing decline between each periodic evaluation, she was qualified for continuing hospice. I found that hospice nurses, while adhering to the guidelines carefully, are considerate and willing to help ensure continuing services. It was difficult and I did employ a couple of terrific ladies as caregivers a few hours a day to let me get some relief. Caregiver services proved unacceptable in the quality of people provided so I searched and found people who truly understand AD and the unique aspects of the disease.

I used the local community online networks, referrals from others. Posted on care.com but had to be very, very careful as I got flooded with responses from many who clearly did not fit and were unqualified. Selected one from there and lucked out and others from local online networks after interviewing and screening carefully. I limited my search to those who lived within a narrow distance so that the travel to and from was not an obstacle nor overwhelming expense for them. Found so many claim experience with AD patients but fell horribly short of real experience or knowledge. I found that caregiver services were charging me, at that time, $35/ hour but the individual, after their deductions was only netting less than $16 or $17 per hour. Once I knew these details it made sense why I was getting such poor results. Pay a fair wage, interview yourself and be really hard with questions, try with monitoring. I have cameras installed to see the common rooms and I told them all that I watched them regularly. Some walked away. Some got asked to leave. A few select got hired. Lastly, if you know someone who is truly knowledgeable about AD (I mean really experienced and knowledgeable by experience, not by books and videos) try to recruit them to at least assist with interviewing candidates. I did that and she was terrific at finding good people. My DW was diagnosed with MCI in 2017 and I managed her care myself until her last year or so when it was too much alone. She passed in August 2025. Good luck to you.