Concierge Service for Alzheimer’s Patients
Paula Newsome
Kaplan University

Everyone has an elderly family member whether it is a parent, friend or significant other we all grow old. With age there are several different things that come along with or happen when growing old, one thing being Alzheimer's disease. With Alzheimer's disease comes death. No one wants to talk about or deal with death. I had to deal with it even when I did not want to, it was forced upon me. My grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and within a year she succumbed to her disease. I never really understood what Alzheimer's was until my grandmother was diagnosed with it. This is what made me want to learn as much as I could understand about Alzheimer's disease. Through my reading I found out Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and the fifth leading cause of death in Americans age 65 and older.(www.Alz.org, 2012). So regardless if we want to deal with it or not it is estimated 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, including approximately 200,000 age <65 years who comprise the younger-onset Alzheimer's disease population. Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disorder that attacks the brain's nerve cells, or neurons, resulting in loss of memory, thinking and language skills, and behavioural changes. The course of Alzheimer's disease is not the same in every person, but symptoms seem to develop over the same general stages. In most people with Alzheimer's, symptoms first appear after age 60. Scientists now know that Alzheimer’s progresses on a spectrum with three stages. The First stage is Mild Alzheimer’s Disease this is the stage when someone would most likely get diagnosed. As the disease progresses, memory loss worsens and changes in other cognitive abilities are evident problems including getting lost and