• Canada’s guide to retirement living and care
• Retirement homes
• Ontario
• Ottawa Region

Memory Care Ottawa

An overview of Alzheimer's care options in the capital region

For families dealing with Alzheimer's Disease in the Ottawa Region, there are a variety of care options, depending on what stage of the disease your loved one is at. During early stages of the disease, you may choose to provide caregiving yourself, or switch off between family members or other available caregivers. Any time you are caregiving for elderly loved ones, though, you should know about all your options, such as respite care stays, home care services and more.  

Help during different stages of dementia

At some point, you will reach out to the Ottawa Local Health Integration Network for help. They will tell you about many options and match those options with stages in progress of the disease:

During early stages of the disease, you may want to consider the value of early home care services, some of which may be subsidized by the Ontario government.  During early stages, you should also look into the possibility of respite care stays in Ottawa Region care homes. As the disease progresses, you will need to increase personal caregiving and increase your reliance on these secondary sources of help. 

During later stages of the disease, especially if your loved one is prone to wandering, sundowning or other distressing symptoms of Alzheimer's, you should begin to consider the value of memory care facilities in Ottawa, like those listed.

For those in search of memory care facilities for loved ones, you also face a variety of options and choices. Getting help from government run long term care homes might be the first choice for many families but this is not straightforward or simple. Most of the desirable facilities are not easy to get into, with limited beds already taken, and potential openings covered by a long waiting list. Waiting lists are part and parcel of getting any kind of proper care for the aging.

Benefits of Ottawa Alzheimer's care homes

Families that choose a memory care facility do so because this offers a truly robust approach to memory care. Here are some reasons why:

• Alzheimer's care facilities are designed with Alzheimer's sufferers in mind, with a number of highly specialised design features. Features may include colour coded hallways, explicit room signage (e.g. Bathroom, Closet, etc.) or a Snoezelen room (light therapy), to name just a few examples. These kinds of features facilitate easier living for those with symptoms of Alzheimer's, to increase safety, manage confusion, and even help to alleviate some symptoms, as has been shown.
• Therapies and techniques may include personal service workers trained in Gentle Persuasive Approach, Java Music Club (as seen in some homes), or the Ashby Memory Method (a newer approach just making inroads as of 2016), to name a few examples. Therapies offered can help Alzheimer's sufferers manage symptoms and can even reduce progress of the disease. 

Learn more about how care is increasingly specialized for other forms of dementia, in our page on dementia care in Ottawa. 

Finding care elsewhere in the region

Ottawa Region is a growing, progressive-minded area with a robust economy fed by federal government jobs, and an always expanding technology industry. It perpetuates innovation and growth. In consequence, nearby communities like Orleans and Kanata have seen rapid growth in the last ten to twenty years. A growing number of Orleans and Kanata retirement homes offer memory care facilities, using many of the latest rehabilitation and recovery techniques and therapies.

You can use our advanced search to select:

• Private memory care communities in Kanata
• Private memory care communities in Orleans

Hospitals in the region, including Montfort Hospital, Ottawa Hospital, and Queensway-Carleton Hospital offer a variety of excellent health care services and programs. None of these has the elder-care specialization and experience level that you will find in a retirement home, though. Homes have onsite nursing staff 24/7, an onsite pharmacy and more. Beyond the clinical needs, though, there is a great advantage for aging people in being in a home-like environment. If they are in memory care facilities during the early to middle stages of the disease, they will feel some acclimatization to their environment and will receive dedicated attention from care staff.

Consult with homes, to learn more about exceptional care offered, and how it is ideally suited to the needs of your loved one.  

Costs associated with Ottawa memory care facilities

Memory care expensive, but homes that offer this have gone above and beyond the ordinary, to create an environment that is tailored to help those with Alzheimer's. Depending on the progress of the disease in your loved one, there is a time frame during which this can help to make things best. Paying higher fees to avail yourself of the best possible care can be the right thing to do, for many families.

Here's a look at costs associated with some exceptional memory care facilities in the Ottawa Region:

Some tips on paying for memory care

Paying for memory care is not easy. If you are fortunate, you have purchased long term care insurance, but few people have planned like this.

Most families will pay as they go, and go through the confused feelings, where you wish for the best for your loved one but worry about them outliving your family's ability to pay for great care. Everyone empathizes with you. Residences do offer payment plans. You can find support, advice and community through the Ottawa Alzheimer Society. We also offer a case study of how people pay for Alzheimer care.

Take a fuller look at how to pay for a retirement home. 

At the very least, you should know about privatized memory care facilities, and what they offer. Paying for specialized Alzheimer's care helps you to bypass the overtaxed public health system, at least for a period of time. It can also be a means of dealing with the mid-to-late stages of the disease while you are waiting for long term care in Ottawa.

If there's any consolation in dealing with late stage Alzheimer's Disease, it is knowing that there are others who are in the same boat or have been there before you. Availing yourself of the widest scope of help possible exposes you to as many fellow travelers as possible, so you can find fellow feeling and share your sorrow (so as to half it, as the old saying goes). We wish you all the best.