Anyone who has ever watched a family care-giver struggle to adapt to the inevitable decline of someone they love can only guess at the physical, emotional and psychological costs to patient and care-giver.

A new website, the creation of a professional who also was a family care-giver, should be invaluable to Alzheimer’s/dementia family care-givers.

The website was created at Weill Cornell Medical College, affiliated with Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. These are highly regarded teaching institutions.

This is an information site you can trust.  This website already has won the 2009 e-Healthcare Leadership Award.

This is a rich, interactive site . One feature takes the site visitor through every room in the home, offering tips about how to make the house safer and more accessible for someone who is suffering cognitive loss, for instance.

No one can change the outcome for these patients. This website may help make the experience less stressful in a variety of ways.

Newswise

“It is estimated that Alzheimer’s disease affects 5.3 million Americans and that number is expected to double by 2050. Caregivers shoulder a particularly heavy burden as the illness alters the dementia patient’s behavior, mood and judgment, impeding his or her ability to engage in normal, everyday activities.

“In response to this mounting public health challenge, experts at Weill Cornell Medical College have spent four years creating ThisCaringHome.org, an interactive, multimedia Web site for caregivers of Alzheimer’s and other dementia patients. The Web site, which received the 2009 e-Healthcare Leadership Award, helps caregivers learn strategies to better care for people with dementia, especially how to adapt the home environment to meet the behavioral and physical needs of people with Alzheimer’s.”

Source: Newswise, March 26, 2010