We know that Alzheimer’s Disease is a progressive and fatal brain disease. People with this ailment have memory, behavior and thinking problems. Alzheimer’s, insidious by its very nature, has been found even it its earliest stages to affect financial decision making and the capacity to resist fraudulent schemes.

A recent study conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham compared healthy elderly adults with elderly adults diagnosed with mild Alzheimer’s. Both groups were given a number of financial planning-type tasks. These tasks ranged from simple financial concepts like identifying coins and their values to more complex ones like describing investment options and returns. Conclusions of the study determined that financial capacity is significantly impaired in patients diagnosed with mild Alzheimer’s. This impairment grows exponentially in just a one-year period. Decline in the ability to perform both simple and complex tasks is significant.

If you suspect or know that a family member is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, there is an immediate need to see that financial supervision and planning is available for them.

Eldercare can be involved … this should be a priority for family members.

Gerri Tyber
Operations Manager, Barton Home Care