Description
Handling money and understanding its value requires the ability to mentally process complex concepts, such as recognizing money, appreciating its value and keeping track of how much is spent each month. It becomes difficult for the Alzheimer's patient to process many of these concepts and their memory Memory
The ability to process information that requires attention, storage, and retrieval. loss only adds to their problems with financial management.
There are any number of ways that problems with financial management can become apparent. Paying bills twice, or not paying at all, are common signs in mild dementia. As the dementia becomes more established, the person you care for might begin to exhibit unusual behaviors with their money. They may leave their cash out in the open, hide money around the house, give money away to family or strangers, or refuse to keep money in the bank. They may also develop irrational fears about having no money or running out of money. The person you care for may have difficulties handling the money and completing basic financial transactions due to trouble counting or adding coins and bills, or understanding their value. General banking procedures, such as deposits and withdrawals may also present difficulties to the person you care for. This can result in your increasing involvement and assistance. For example, they may lose money, may forget to pay bills, or may pay bills more than once without your guidance.
In Frontotemporal dementia Frontotemporal dementia
A type of dementia that mainly affects the frontal lobe causing a problem in executive function tasks., the impairment in financial decision-making stems from poor judgment and impulse control together with risk taking behavior. The person may spend money impulsively. When this behavior is noticed, it becomes important for the caregiver to quickly limit the person's access to the finances. Given that memory is often relatively well preserved early in the course of frontotemporal dementia, and that a lot of impulsivity might otherwise go unremarked, poor financial judgment can be the first sign of a problem.
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