Alzheimer’s, Dementia & Hospice & Hospice
Hospice Care helps people living with late-stage Alzheimer’s disease or dementia when their condition has reached a point where comfort and quality of life are the main focus.
Qualifying for Hospice Care
You or your loved one may qualify for hospice care if:
Advanced Alzheimer’s symptoms
- Unable to walk, dress, or bathe without help.
- Limited or no ability to speak (may only say a few words or repeat the same word).
- Incontinence (loss of bladder or bowel control).
Recent health decline
- Frequent infections, like aspiration pneumonia or sepsis.
- Severe bedsores that do not heal.
- Recurring fevers even after antibiotics.
- Significant weight loss or low protein levels in the blood.
- Challenges eating or drinking without assistance.
Hospice care focuses on providing comfort, symptom relief, and emotional support for both the patient and their family during this stage of life. As Alzheimer’s progresses, patients often lose the ability to walk, sit up without support, smile, or hold their head up. These changes are signs that the disease is progressing and may indicate they are ready for hospice care. If you’re unsure, hospice teams can help assess whether now is the right time to start care.
How Hospice East Bay helps people living with Alzheimer’s, Dementia & Hospice
Support for Patients
Support for patients
Daily care and comfort:
- Assisting with personal care tasks like feeding, bathing, and mobility, which become more challenging as the disease progresses.
- Helping with eating and drinking safely, including techniques to prevent choking or aspiration.
Symptom relief:
- Providing medications to ease pain, anxiety, and agitation.
- Supplying medical equipment like hospital beds, wheelchairs, and special mattresses to prevent bedsores.
Specialized support:
- Offering care tailored to the advanced stages of dementia (stages six or seven), when patients need significant support with daily activities and experience greater medical needs.
Bruns House:
Our Bruns House inpatient facility provides short-term intensive treatment in a homelike setting for management of uncontrolled symptoms.
Support for Families & Caregivers
Education and guidance:
- Teaching families how to safely assist with feeding, turning in bed, and maintaining skin health.
- Providing information on managing symptoms like swallowing difficulties and recognizing risks like aspiration pneumonia.
Emotional support:
- Offering counseling to help families cope with the emotional challenges of caregiving and the changes in their loved one.
- Providing access to spiritual care and social work support for additional comfort and guidance.
24/7 access:
- Hospice staff are available around the clock to answer questions or provide in-person support during emergencies or difficult moments.
Hospice Care
The focus of hospice care is to ensure the comfort of every patient during their final stages of life.
How Hospice East Bay helps people living with Alzheimer’s, Dementia & Hospice
Support for Patients
Support for patients
Daily care and comfort:
- Assisting with personal care tasks like feeding, bathing, and mobility, which become more challenging as the disease progresses.
- Helping with eating and drinking safely, including techniques to prevent choking or aspiration.
Symptom relief:
- Providing medications to ease pain, anxiety, and agitation.
- Supplying medical equipment like hospital beds, wheelchairs, and special mattresses to prevent bedsores.
Specialized support:
- Offering care tailored to the advanced stages of dementia (stages six or seven), when patients need significant support with daily activities and experience greater medical needs.
Bruns House:
Our Bruns House inpatient facility provides short-term intensive treatment in a homelike setting for management of uncontrolled symptoms.
Support for Families & Caregivers
Education and guidance:
- Teaching families how to safely assist with feeding, turning in bed, and maintaining skin health.
- Providing information on managing symptoms like swallowing difficulties and recognizing risks like aspiration pneumonia.
Emotional support:
- Offering counseling to help families cope with the emotional challenges of caregiving and the changes in their loved one.
- Providing access to spiritual care and social work support for additional comfort and guidance.
24/7 access:
- Hospice staff are available around the clock to answer questions or provide in-person support during emergencies or difficult moments.
Bruns House
Our Bruns House inpatient facility provides short-term intensive treatment in a homelike setting for management of uncontrolled symptoms.
Support for Veterans
- Hospice East Bay’s Veteran-Centered Care program helps veterans living with dementia by addressing the unique challenges they may face, such as navigating the VA healthcare system, and ensuring they have access to programs that provide caregiver support and compensation.
- Veteran-Centered Care guides veterans through discussions related to their goals of care, including balancing pain management with the desire to remain clear-headed and independent.
- Dementia may trigger past PTS symptoms in veterans, leading to increased anxiety, irritability, or combativeness.
- Veteran-Centered Care focuses on avoiding triggers like loud noises, unfamiliar people, or certain smells to create a calming environment.
- Hospice East Bay educates families about how PTS symptoms may appear, such as nightmares, hypervigilance, or agitation, and offers strategies to manage these behaviors.
How palliative care can help if you’re not ready for hospice
- Emotional and psychosocial support includes counseling to address anxiety, depression, or fear related to the disease.
- Symptom management and relief focuses on reducing pain and other challenging symptoms while enhancing the patient’s overall quality of life.
- Goals-of-care discussions identify what it means for the patient to live well—their goals, values, and treatment preferences—to support informed decision-making by patients and families.
- Care coordination with the appropriate specialists (such as oncologists, neurologists, or primary care providers) to align treatment with the patient’s goals and evolving needs.
- Transition planning for when curative treatments are no longer effective or meeting the patient’s goals and values.
- Future planning and advance directives involve supporting patients in designating healthcare decision-makers and completing medical and legal planning documents.
Palliative Care
Is Palliative Care right for you?
Find out with this video from Prepped Health’s PCforMe
Hospice East Bay ensures that patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease receive compassionate, tailored care while families feel supported, educated, and prepared for the journey ahead.
