Many caregivers feel overwhelmed when their loved one starts to demonstrate significant cognitive problems or when they are first diagnosed with a cognitive disorder. Even after seeing a physician, most caregivers continue to have unanswered questions. For example, we are commonly asked to explain the difference between Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia. Fortunately, there are numerous institutions which have useful online references, such as Alzheimer’s Texas, the Mayo Clinic, and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). They may provide information about local resources for persons with dementia and their caregivers, opportunities to volunteer or otherwise get involved, or simply general education about dementia and related topics.
Local Resources:
- Aging Well
- Alzheimer’s Texas
- Alzheimer’s Association®, Capital of Texas Chapter
- Area Agency on Aging of the Capital Area (AAACAP)
- Capital Area Parkinson’s Society (CAPS)
- Caregiving Cafe
- Family Eldercare
Education Links:
- Alzheimer’s Disease (AD): Alzheimer’s Association®, Mayo Clinic, UCSF
- Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (EOAD): Alzheimer’s Association®, Mayo Clinic
- Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease: NIH
- Causes of Dementia: Alzheimer’s Association®
- Cognition Staging
- Normal Aging: Cleveland Clinic
- Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins
- Dementia: Mayo Clinic, UCSF, Johns Hopkins
- Dementias with Gait and Other Movement Abnormalities
- Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD): Mayo Clinic, NIH
- Huntington’s Disease: Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins
- Lewy Body Disease (LBD): Mayo Clinic, UCSF, NIH
- Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH): Hydrocephalus Association
- Parkinson’s Disease Dementia: Alzheimer’s Association®, Parkinson Foundation, UCSF
- Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP): NIH
- Other Dementia Syndromes
- Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (CAA): Mount Sinai, Angiopathy.org
- Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome (CTES): Mayo Clinic, UCSF
- Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD): Mayo Clinic, UCSF
- Korsakoff’s Syndrome: Johns Hopkins
- LATE syndrome: Harvard Medical School
- Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA): Mayo Clinic
- Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA): Mayo Clinic
- Rapidly Progressive Dementias: UCSF
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD): Mayo Clinic, UCSF, Johns Hopkins
- Reversible Cognitive Disorders
- Delirium: Mayo Clinic
- Paraneoplastic Syndromes: Cleveland Clinic
- Vascular Dementia: Mayo Clinic, UCSF
National Caregiver Resources:
- AARP (Family Caregiving)
- Family Caregiver Alliance
- National Council on Aging (Caregivers)
- National Institute on Aging (NIA)
National Disease-Based Organizations:
- Alzheimer’s Association®
- The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation, Inc.
- CurePSP® (Progressive Supranuclear Palsy)
- Hydrocephalus Association
- Lewy Body Dementia Association
- Reimagining dementia
Hotlines:
- AARP (Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET)
- English: 1-877-333-5885
- Spanish: 1-888-971-2013
- Alzheimer’s Association (24/7, 1-800-272-3900)