Expert View 10 Tips for Caregivers

• Library: Alzheimer's and the Practice of Law: Counseling Clients with Dementia and Their Families (ABA) (2013 Ed.)

EXPERT VIEW 10 Tips for Caregivers

Jo Huey is nationally known as an author and trainer of those who provide care for people with Alzheimer's disease. One of her most memorable experiences was evacuating more than 30 New Orleans memory-care residents when Hurricane Katrina came to town. She and some of her staff spent the next two and a half months in temporary housing. All the residents had a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease or some other type of dementia—individuals who typically would stay in an assisted-living facility until the end of their lives. Jo became affectionately known to her staff as "Hurricane Huey."

"We were required to do hurricane drills every year," she says, "but after the drill, you're actually able to go back to the residences that you evacuated. After Hurricane Katrina, we had nothing to go back to—and that leads to dealing with the difficult ambiguities of what to do next in the midst of a disaster." She has served as a nursing home administrator in Colorado and an assisted-living director in Louisiana.

Q: As you think of the years you've been dealing with persons with Alzheimer's, including your own mother, what would you love to have lawyers know about working with people with Alzheimer's and their families?

A: It's important to understand the complexity of what happens and to be able to look at the whole family situation. I think lawyers should know that when someone comes into your office complaining about certain problems within their family and saying that someone is trying to take away their money, you never know whether you're looking at a person who is unable to...