The Storm Within: Protecting Loved Ones With Dementia During Florence

(By Melissa Bailey for Kaiser Health News)

As Hurricane Florence barreled toward her coastal community, Patty Younts grappled with a question: Where should a person with dementia go?

Her husband, Howard, 66, suffers from a type of dementia called posterior cortical atrophy, which has robbed him of short-term memory and made him almost blind. Their home on Pawley Island in South Carolina, where they have lived for more than 30 years, lay in a mandatory evacuation zone. Staying could mean exposing themselves to raging winds and a storm surge. But leaving would mean upending the familiar routines and sense of security that her husband relies on. Continue reading article here…

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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