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How to Care for a Loved One With Dementia: 5 Expert Tips
The details of Gene Hackman’s final days may never be known. But officials in Santa Fe, N.M., said on Friday that it appeared that Mr. Hackman, who had advanced Alzheimer’s as well as heart disease, had spent about a week alone after his wife, who was his caregiver, died at home of a rare viral infection.
Mr. Hackman, 95, may have been among the most famous movie stars of the 20th century, but his circumstances point toward a common challenge, according to experts in dementia and family caregiving. Like Mr. Hackman, about seven million Americans have Alzheimer’s, a type of dementia, and their family members, like his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65, often help care for them as the disease progresses.
Laura N. Gitlin, a behavioral scientist at Drexel University who researches ways to support caregivers, said that when a patient is diagnosed with dementia, their loved ones rarely receive all the information they need.
“No one really explains to the family what the course of the disease may look like, how to prepare,” she said. “No one checks in on the caregiver.”
Knowing how to prepare for this situation can help improve the quality of life for not only patients, as they adjust to life with the disease, but also those who become devoted to their needs. Here are five tips to consider if you become a caregiver for a loved one with dementia.
Stay social.
People with dementia may feel uncomfortable or anxious around faces they don’t recognize, and stigma can lead some families to retreat from social life. But becoming reclusive can worsen the disease, said Dr. Helen Kales, a geriatric psychiatrist at the University of California, Davis. Isolation can accelerate cognitive decline and even puts caregivers at a higher risk for developing dementia themselves.
Dr. Kales therefore recommends that patients and their loved ones keep attending social events and trying new things. A couple she worked with started square dancing when one partner was in the early stages of dementia.
“If there are sort of fresh eyes for a situation and respite, that benefits everybody,” she said.
Set up a caregiving team.
Many primary caregivers feel reluctant to impose, and other family and friends may not know how to help, Dr. Gitlin said. To address this, she suggests holding a meeting and assigning roles. For example, a sibling might plan to call every morning or evening to check in. If the family member with dementia doesn’t answer, they could request a wellness check.
Nancy Goode, executive director of the Margaret Jo Hogg Alzheimer’s Outreach Center in Albany, Ga., which provides adult day care services and support for caregivers, said she tells caregivers to have at least five people they can call for help in an emergency or to regularly help. This could be a friend who might agree to visit every Wednesday for a few hours so the caregiver can run errands.
Seek help from an expert.
When a family member receives a dementia diagnosis, it’s difficult to foresee how the patient’s needs will change as the disease progresses, Dr. Gitlin said. So she recommends caregivers meet with an expert, like a geriatric social worker or a geriatric nurse practitioner, who can evaluate the safety of the patient’s home and how much support will be needed.
That sort of advice doesn’t just come along with the diagnosis, she said, so families have to seek it out and pay for it.
“It seems simple,” she said, “but nobody is given the knowledge and skills that are needed.”
Consider technology that can help monitor your loved one.
In-home cameras and motion sensors can help relatives who live far away check on family members with dementia. For example, a device can be affixed to a refrigerator that sounds an alarm if the door isn’t opened for a long time; another can be worn by patients and send an alert if they fall. It’s important to discuss privacy concerns and data security when considering such tools, which are becoming more advanced and widely available, Dr. Gitlin said.
“We don’t want to make this all about bells and whistles,” Dr. Kales said, “but I do think that we want to use technology as an adjunct to help people as they go on this journey.”
Take care of yourself.
The demands of providing for someone with dementia can be so consuming that many caregivers neglect their own health, Ms. Goode said.
“They’re just worn out,” she said. “They’re just totally exhausted.”
Ms. Goode said caregivers often take on all the responsibilities of helping their patients, and encourages them to ask for help so they can make time for their own medical appointments, rest and wellness.
“If you’re not healthy,” Ms. Goode said, “you can’t take care of them.”
new video loaded: Singer D4vd Is Charged With Murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez
transcript
transcript
Singer D4vd Is Charged With Murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez
The musician D4vd was charged with murder on Monday, seven months after the police said that the body of a teenage girl, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, had been found in the trunk of his Tesla. D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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“On April 23, 2025, as has been alleged by the complaint, Celeste, a 14-year-old at that time, went to Mr. Burke’s house in the Hollywood Hills. She was never heard from again.” “These charges include the most serious charges that a D.A.‘s office can bring. That is first-degree murder with special circumstances. The special circumstances being lying in wait, committing this crime for financial gain or murdering a witness in an investigation. These special circumstances carry with it, along with the first-degree murder charge, a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty.” “We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Revis Hernandez nor was he the cause of her death.”
By Jackeline Luna
April 20, 2026
In this photo illustration, The Onion website is displayed on a computer screen, showing a satirical story titled Here’s Why I Decided To Buy ‘InfoWars’, on November 14, 2024 in Pasadena, California.
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The satirical website, The Onion, has a new deal to take over Infowars, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s far-right media company. If approved by a Texas judge, the deal would take away his Infowars microphone, and allow The Onion to resume its plans to turn the website into a parody of itself.
Families of those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who sued Jones for defamation, want the sale to happen. They’re still waiting to collect on the nearly $1.3 billion judgement they won against Jones for spreading lies that they faked the deaths of their children in order to boost support for gun control. That prompted Jones’s followers to harass and threaten the families for years.
The families are also eager to take away Jones’s platform for spewing such conspiracy theories. The deal not only would divorce Jones from his Infowars brand, but it would turn the platform against him by allowing The Onion to mock his kind of conspiracy mongering and advocate for gun control.
The families “took on Alex Jones to stop him from inflicting the same harm on others” by using “his corrupt business platform to torment and harass them for profit,” said Chris Mattei, one of the attorneys for the families. “When Infowars finally goes dark, the machinery of lies that Jones built will become a force for social good, thanks to the families’ courage and The Onion’s vision, persistence and stewardship.”
A mourner visits the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial on the 10th anniversary of the school shooting on Dec.14, 2022 in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six people were shot and killed, including 20 first graders and 6 educators, in one of the deadliest elementary school shootings in U.S. history.
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For its part The Onion called it a “significant step in an effort to transform one of the internet’s more notorious misinformation platforms into a new comedy network for satire.” The company says it could announce its new rollout of Infowars in a matter of weeks if the judge approves the deal.
“Eight years, almost to the day, after the Sandy Hook parents first filed suit against Alex Jones, they’ll finally get some justice, and even some money,” said Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion. “This is a chance to make something genuinely new out of a very broken piece of media history.”
On its website Monday, The Onion posted a satirical message from the fictional CEO of its parent company, Global Tetrahedron, “Bryce P. Tetraeder,” stating a “dream is finally coming true.”
Jones’s posted on X Monday that “The Onion Has Fraudulently Claimed AGAIN That It Owns Infowars!!!” adding that “The Democrat Party Disinformation Publication Is Publicly Bragging About Its Plan To Silence Alex Jones’ Infowars And Then Steal & Misrepresent His Identity!”
On a podcast in March, Jones alluded to the impending demise of Infowars, saying, “We’re getting shut down. We beat so many attacks. But finally, we’re shutting down like the middle of next month,” before insisting, “We’re going to be fine.”
Jones suggested Monday he would appeal any court decision to approve the leasing deal. And even if he loses control of Infowars, Jones could continue to broadcast from another studio, under another name.
Jones’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
More than a year ago, a federal bankruptcy judge rejected The Onion’s first attempt to buy Infowars through a bankruptcy auction, saying the process was flawed. Since then, the bankruptcy court clarified that because Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, is not itself in bankruptcy, its property should be handled instead by a Texas state receiver. That cleared the way for the new pending deal to lease Infowars to The Onion, with the hope that a future sale could be approved.
In papers filed in state court, the Texas receiver said he “determined that licensing the Intellectual Property is in the best interest of the receivership estate.”
The deal calls for The Onion to pay $81,000 a month to license the Infowars.com domain and brand name, which the receiver says will “cover carrying costs to preserve and protect the assets of the receivership estate” until an appeal filed by Jones is decided and the path is cleared for a sale.
Jones’s personal bankruptcy case is proceeding in federal bankruptcy court, where a trustee continues to sell off Jones’s personal property, including cars, homes, watches and guns, with proceeds intended for the families.
A memorial to massacre victims stands near the former site of Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, 2013 in Newtown, Connecticut, one year after Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 first graders and six adults at the school.
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US negotiators to head to Pakistan and Iranian cargo ship seized – a recappublished at 00:37 BST 20 April
Tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday
Here’s a recap of the latest developments.
US negotiators will head to Pakistan on Monday with the intention of holding further talks on ending the war, Trump says – but Iranian state media cites unnamed officials as saying Tehran has “no plans for now to participate”.
The prospect of further high-level negotiations – a White House official says Vice-President JD Vance will attend – comes amid reports of fresh attacks on commercial vessels.
Trump says the navy intercepted and took “custody” of an Iranian tanker attempting to pass through the US blockade, “blowing a hole” in the ship’s engine room in the process.
Earlier, in the same post announcing his representatives would travel for more talks, Trump renewed his threat to destroy Iranian energy sites and bridges if no deal is reached.
Reports in Iranian media over the weekend suggest Iran is continuing to work on plans to potentially apply a toll to ships passing through the strait – although it’s unclear if such a move will be implemented.
Iranian state TV cites unnamed officials as saying that “continuation of the so-called naval blockade, violation of the ceasefire and threatening US rhetoric” are slowing progress in reaching an agreement.
Trump also accused Iran of violating the ceasefire, saying more commercial ships have been attacked by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.
A UK maritime agency reported two commercial ships came under fire in the strait on Saturday.
Iran’s foreign minister had said on Friday that the strait would be opened – which was shortly followed by Trump saying the US naval blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place until a deal is reached. Iran has since said the strait is closed again.
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