Tools & Resources

For families with Dementia patients

• Montgomery Hospice and Prince George’s Hospice flyer for families: Expert End-of-Life Care for Alzheimer’s Patients: when is your loved one eligible?
• Medicare’s Hospice Benefit for Beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s Disease, a publication of the Alzheimer’s Association
• New York Times article: Treating Dementia, but Overlooking Its Physical Toll Tara Parker-Pope October 19, 2009
  • Dementia is a physical illness, too – a progressive, terminal disease that shuts down the body as it attacks the brain. Although the early stages can last for years, the life expectancy of a patient with advanced dementia is similar to that of a patient with advanced cancer.
• Dementia At the End of Life S. National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging
• Coping with Late-Stage Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s Disease Education & Referral Center

Dementia resources for Clinicians

• Hospice Foundation of America program
• Does Hospice Improve Quality of Care for Persons Dying from Dementia?
  Bereaved family members of people with dementia who received hospice reported higher perceptions of the quality of care and quality of dying. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society August 16, 2011
• Dying from Dementia, Greg A. Sachs, M.D.
  The New England Journal of Medicine Volume 361:1595-1596 October 15, 2009 Number 16
  Studies have shown that patients with dementia who receive hospice care also have fewer hospitalizations and milder psychiatric symptoms as compared with those not receiving hospice care.
• Estimating Prognosis for Nursing Home Residents With Advanced Dementia
  JAMA Vol. 291 No. 22, June 9, 2004
  Advanced dementia is an incurable, progressive condition for which palliation is often the primary goal of care, regardless of life expectancy.
• Dementia Care Practice Recommendations for Assisted Living Residences and Nursing Homes from the Alzheimer’s Association (8.29 MB file)
• Alzheimer’s Disease and End-of-Life Issues
  NIH National Institute on Aging