Lakeview Ranch

This is a touching article from Alzheimer’s Reading Room about a woman named Judy Berry and what brought her to founding Lakeview Ranch, a dementia special care facility. Lakeview Ranch provides care for high risk dementia patients, patients that many places would often refuse to work with. Judy has personal experience with what dementia can do to a loved one, she lost her Mother to it, and dedicated Lakeview Ranch to her memory. This facility is based on the idea that even the most difficult, even angry, patients can be cared for in a loving and effective way.

It's so hard to watch a mind slip away. “It’s okay daddy, if you forget I’ll remind you.” Daughter Kris Madson says. So hard to lose touch “I love you, can you wake up a little bit so you can visit with us?” Daughter Nikole Anderson asks her mother. So hard to realize.

“I remember the day that he held my hands he looked at me and said oh, you're beautiful. What's your name again?” Daughter Tracy Schreier says.

Dementia is a disease that not only takes away the good. Doctors tell families it can turn dangerous. Delores Herr remembers what her doctor said about her husband Vern. “You have to let him go because he could reach out and one hit, he said he could kill you and he'd never know he did it.”

When those with dementia lash out they often get locked up. Judy Berry recalls what happened with her mother, “They put her in what they call the locked unit. At that point in time it was six beds in a small hallway with locked doors. She went berserk.”
Berry says her mother was kicked out of several facilities, “She had a label of being aggressive. She would hit people or kick people to get attention.”

Read More at Alzheimer’s Reading Room

Alzcare in New Braunfels. Caring treatment for Alzheimer’s patients.