What a helper can and cannot carry
Families supporting someone with dementia often reach the point where the carer is as worn down as the person they care for. A live-in helper can lift a large part of that daily weight — meals, housekeeping, companionship, a calm and consistent presence — and that relief is real and worth arranging early, before burnout forces a rushed decision.
The honest limit is medical. A helper is not a trained dementia nurse, and there is no official document that divides ordinary home care from skilled nursing care. That means the safety-critical areas — giving or adjusting medication, managing wandering, reading medical symptoms — should sit inside systems the family sets up with professional guidance, not left to a helper’s judgment. Naming that boundary is what keeps everyone safe.
Set the role around daily support
Define what helps day to day, and where a professional or family member must stay in charge.
- List the daily support that eases the load: meals, routine, companionship, housekeeping.
- Keep medication decisions and administration under a family/medical system, not assumption.
- Plan for wandering safety with the family’s own arrangements and professional advice.
- Agree how symptoms and changes are reported to the family and doctors.
- Give clear, patient instructions — dementia care needs consistency, not improvisation.