Dementia and Alzheimer's Caregiving Cheat Sheet

Dementia caregiving covers the full arc of managing progressive cognitive and functional decline in a loved one — from initial diagnosis through end-of-life — and demands equal attention to the person living with dementia and the caregiver themselves. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60–80% of all dementia cases but it shares the caregiving landscape with vascular, Lewy body, frontotemporal, and mixed dementias, each with its own symptom pattern and clinical landmines. The defining mental model for every caregiver: dementia erodes the person's ability to make sense of the world, not their ability to feel emotion — meeting them in their emotional reality rather than correcting their factual errors is the single most impactful shift a caregiver can make.