Heritage at Framingham • A Division of Mary Ann Morse Health Care Corporation 
Assisted Living Community • Alzheimer's Care
747 Water Street • Framingham MA 01701 • 508.788.6050

Alzheimer's Stages

Early Stage

Patient

  • Less sparkle
  • Less initiative and drive
  • Word-finding problems
  • Short-term memory loss
  • Patient may be aware there is a problem
  • Increasing inability to handle routine tasks
  • Appears self-absorbed, insensitive
  • Difficulty planning, making decisions
  • Inability to calculate
  • Seeks and prefers the familiar,shuns the unfamiliar
  • Changes in ability to show feelings, control temper, handle frustration

Family

  • Difficult seeing problems
  • Patient may cover up ("stress," "overworked,"etc.) and family helps to compensate
  • Needs to be available for reassurance and varying degrees of supervision
  • Diagnosis may or may not be sought; family may deny diagnosis, refuse to acknowledge progression or plan for the future

Mid-Stage

Patient

  • Behavioral changes (sleep, wandering)
  • Disoriented (time and place)
  • Problems understanding and with self-expression in speaking and writing
  • Problems with judgment
  • May not recognize familiar people
  • Repetitive actions
  • Great difficulty in decision making
  • May feel guilty and sad over loss of person they once loved/knew
  • Catastrophic actions
  • Memory of recent past poor or failing
  • Memory of distant past astonishingly clear
  • Lethargic, little warmth

Family

  • Caregiver often isolated from friends and other family
  • May become target for patient's anger and frustration
  • May develop own health problems

Late Stage

Patient

  • Apathetic, unable to communicate
  • Unable to care for self, requiring 24-hour care
  • Poor remote and recent memory / Incontinent
  • Movement toward assuming fetal position
  • Eventual shutting down
    of mind and body

Family

  • Caregiver often burned out
  • Family may decide on nursing home placement, feel guilty
  • Change of role from caregiver to care manager
  • Grieving loss
Heritage at Framingham - Classic Assisted Living Community - Alzheimer's & Memory Care
Heritage at Framingham MA is a unique, five-star assisted living facility with a specialized Homestead program for residents with Alzheimer's disease and other memory impairments. Serving residents and their families from Framingham, Sudbury, Ashland, Holliston, Sherborn, Wayland, Marlborough, Natick, Southborough, Wellesley, Newton, Needham, Hudson and other Boston metrowest and central Mass communities.
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