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You may be concerned or frustrated if you or someone you care about starts having some memory or thinking issues. There can be many reasons for this, and it is best to start by speaking with a doctor and care team. Some underlying causes are treatable, and there is support to help you or someone you care about live a more fulfilling and safe life if it is dementia or a mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
What is Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)?
People living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may have some trouble with memory, thinking, understanding, and speaking that is not related to aging. While the person may not reach a level where they are considered to have dementia, slight changes could be a reason for concern, and the person should meet with their doctor. If it’s reversible (like a treatable infection), the doctor may help treat the underlying cause. If the cause is unknown or the person is diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), you will want to take steps to ensure safety in the home and so the person remains healthy and independent as long as possible.
What are the Signs of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)?
It is important to remember that the signs below are only warning signs if they are different from what the person can usually do in their normal environment. For example, if someone has always been anxious, anxiety isn’t necessarily a sign of mild cognitive impairment. Also, if someone has different work tasks or more work, they may have difficulty completing it.
- Forgetting important things: we all forget where our keys or phone are from time to time, but misplacing checkbooks, credit cards, medication and other important documents or forgetting things more than occasionally can be a warning sign.
- Trouble with complex tasks: Difficulty with planning an event, driving, handling finances or difficulty with work duties may be sign that mental capabilities are changing.
- Taking longer to complete tasks: Requiring extra time NOT due to physical changes, may mean someone is requiring more time to think about the task or make decisions.
- Mood Changes: When people have trouble understanding, they can become frustrated, anxious and agitated easily. People may also completely withdraw or give up on completing the task if it is too hard.
- Poor judgement: People may make bad or unsafe decision.
What are some causes of changes in thinking?
Many people first ask why someone is forgetting more or having increased difficulty understanding things they used to be able to. There are many reasons this may occur:
- Stress
- Poor Nutrition
- Medication Side Effects
- Medical Issues (infections, neurological disorders and other medical conditions)
- Sensory Issues: poor eyesight or hearing many also affect comprehension and should be examined as a possible cause for confusion or misunderstanding
The first step is to consult the person’s primary care doctor to further understand why this is happening and make a plan to try to make improvements. The doctor may make helpful changes to medical care. Neighbors, friends, and family might be able to help things like buying healthy food for someone or minimizing stressors.
What can be done if its a Mild Cognitive Impairment?
How a mild cognitive impairment is addressed depends on the cause. If the doctor rules out medical conditions that can be corrected or medication side effects and determines the cognitive impairment will be ongoing or progressive. Some general ideas include:
- Go to a doctor to tule out medical conditions that can be corrected, assess for medication side effects, and determine the cognitive impairment will be probably get better or worse over time.
- Ask for a referral to a psychologist, occupational therapist, speech language pathologist or certified dementia practitioner. These professionals will be able to give you more specific recommendations based on unique needs and the level of the cognitive impairment.
- Getting a monitoring system or medical alert system to allow someone to get help if needed (granted the person is at a level where they can recall to use the alert system.) Improving technology such as wearable technology can also be useful to make calls and detect emergencies.
- Support the person by offering assistance. Make sure you do not patronize the person or take away things that are important to them. Offer to do it with the person to monitor for safety. For example, setting up a lot of medication is hard for anyone! If I want to help someone, I typically say something like, “It’s hard to set them up perfect every-time when you have lots of medications, so I am happy to just be hear for another set of eyes. I know that if you miss taking a medication, it makes you sick, and I understand you don’t want to feel bad.” Try not to make the person feel unable to do anything, just give support for safety. This could also be done with things like managing finances. Read 3 ways to Improve Communication and Relationships for additional tips! Also help them stay on top of home maintenance with this Home Maintenace Checklist with special considerations for seniors.
- Hire a companion or caregiver. Sometimes people will need help, but be more reluctant to receive help from their family as they feel like a burden or try to “hide” the extent of their issue from their family. You can introduce them to a mutual “friend”, that comes over to check in and offer companionship for safety monitor and to be able to tell if someone has any further changes and needs more help.
- Use technology. There are Smart clocks for orientation to the date and time, automatic pill dispensers to help with medication management, automatic pet feeders so the pet does not go hungry and more devices are always coming out as technology advances! Smart technology is also continuously improving and is already part of our everyday lives. Stoves and curling irons that turn off automatically after a set period of time to decrease the risk of fires and programmable thermostats are a few examples. See this guide for more ideas to keep someone safer at home. You can also read my CSA Journal article on considerations on using smart home technology to age in place.
Ensure to continuously monitor for worsening cognitive changes as a more support or a higher level of care may be needed. Striking a balance is key. While you want to try to support safe independence, knowing warning signs and being proactive to prevent mishaps is important. See the following related resources for more details:
5 Powerful Ways to Adapt to Roles
Professionals and Free Resources to Help with Aging in Place
Interactions of the Person, Environment and Occupation or Task
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By continuing with this site, you are agreeing that you acknowledge and understand this disclaimer in full and will not hold Aging Uniquely, parent companies or content creators liable for the information or use of information on this site because everyone ages uniquely and has unique needs. The content on Aging Uniquely sites is for general information purposes only and Aging Uniquely does not provide medical or health advice. It is not a substitute for medical or health professional advice and you should never ignore professional medical advice or delay seeking emergency care because of something you read on the Aging Uniquely website or social media platforms. If you are experiencing a medical emergency call 911 or seek emergency services. Aging Uniquely is not responsible for what may happen if you use their information in place of medical or professional advice. You are responsible for your own health and safety or how you apply this advice to adults/older adults you support. I highly recommend you consult the proper qualified medical or health profession before implementing any information from Aging Uniquely or other health related websites.