Everyone needs to prepare for Alzheimer’s Disease. They should do so long before they think that they might get it, because it is not just the elderly who suffer from the disease.
The typical view of people with Alzheimer’s Disease is of an elderly person in a nursing home who cannot remember very much. That is probably true for the average Alzheimer’s patient.
Most people who get the disease are elderly and many of them do have to go to a nursing home.
However, those are not the only people who get it.
Although the reasons are not understood, there are some people who get the disease long before they reach retirement age.
It is called Early-Onset Alzheimer’s, as the Massillon Independent reports in “Alzheimer’s not limited to elderly.”
Because it is possible for you to get the disease and it could happen much sooner than you think, you need to prepare for it. You need to do something now that you will have difficulty doing after you get the disease.
You need to plan for your estate.
That does not just mean you should plan for who gets your possessions, which you should do, it also means that you should plan for who will help you, when you can no longer handle things on your own.
You need a general durable power of attorney, so someone can handle your finances.
You also need a health care power of attorney, so someone can make medical decisions when you are unable to do so.
Both of those legal documents are routinely provided by estate planning attorneys.
It is not likely that you get Alzheimer’s before you retire. However, you should always prepare as if you will want to be on the safe side.
Reference: Massillon Independent (August 22, 2017) “Alzheimer’s not limited to elderly.”
