Families Are Not Prepared: Dementia workshop helps caregivers face what comes next

BELLEVILLE — A dementia diagnosis may come with a medical explanation and perhaps a prescription. What often doesn’t come with it is an instruction manual for Tuesday afternoon. Families may suddenly become responsible for meals, medications, transportation, finances, and bathroom needs. Later may come the need for constant supervision, decisions about in-home help or residential care, and the realization that a spouse, son or daughter has become a caregiver without training for the job. “Families are not prepared,” said Dr. Rollin Wright, an associate professor of medicine in Penn State College of Medicine’s Division of…