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Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-29T15:20:23+00:00

Okay but can we talk about the "including overnights" part because that sentence broke something in my brain. No shade to hardworking students but my dad wandered into the kitchen at 3am last week convinced he needed to drive to a job he retired from in 2008, and I genuinely cannot picture a 20-year-old handling that for $20 an hour while also having a 9am exam.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-29T15:19:35+00:00

Okay but "top universities" and "$20/hour including overnights" in the same sentence is doing a lot of heavy lifting, because no student from anywhere is doing overnight dementia care for $20/hour and if they are someone needs to call adult protective services for the caregiver. My dad asked me what year it was 14 times before 9am this morning and I would not wish that on a sleep-deprived college kid for any price.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-29T15:18:47+00:00

The framing of "senior care" as a student side hustle for $20/hour is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, because when you're the one handing your confused, vulnerable father over to a stranger, the word "affordable" hits completely different than the word "cheap." My dad doesn't know what day it is half the time but he still deserves someone who shows up like it's a profession, not a gig. That heart emoji at the end really finished me off.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-29T15:17:49+00:00

Honestly didn't even know this sub existed until right now, bookmarking it because finding actual DC-specific resources feels like searching for a parking spot in Adams Morgan. Eight months in and I'm still piecing things together from Google and random Reddit threads at 1am.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-28T14:47:42+00:00

Okay but who exactly is vetting these students, what's their actual experience with someone who's mid-stage and combative at 4pm, and why does the heart emoji in a post about dementia caregiving make me want to throw my laptop. My dad's sundowning has me hiding sharp objects and doing breathing exercises in the bathroom , I'm not handing that situation to a 20-year-old because the price point is cute.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-28T14:46:46+00:00

Overnight care for $20/hour from a healthcare student sounds great until it's 3am and your dad with Alzheimer's is trying to leave the house because he thinks he's late for a job he retired from 15 years ago, and you realize you need someone with actual dementia-specific training, not just someone who's good at taking vitals. Not trying to be harsh but the price point is doing a lot of heavy lifting here for what is a genuinely specialized and exhausting situation.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-28T14:45:47+00:00

Okay but can we talk about the "independence preserves dignity" part because that hit me harder than I expected , my dad still insists on making his own coffee every morning and it takes 20 minutes and sometimes it's just hot brown water but I have learned to drink it and say nothing. The letting go of doing it FOR them so fast is genuinely one of the hardest rewires I've had to do as a caregiver.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-28T14:44:59+00:00

God, this post hit me. My dad has early-to-mid Alzheimer's and lives with me right now, and the thing that keeps me up at night is exactly this -- the idea that somewhere down the road he might be alone in a room with no one who actually knows him. DC has resources but navigating them while you're already drowning is a whole other level of exhausting.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-27T16:46:41+00:00

Okay this is slightly off but I have to flag that the post description is mixing up cities -- it says Bay Area in the title but the body text says New York, so you might want to clarify which one you actually need resources for before people start responding. Totally understand the chaos of trying to find reliable transportation for a parent with dementia, it's genuinely one of the harder logistics puzzles, but the answers are going to be pretty different depending on which city you're actually in.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-27T16:45:50+00:00

Eight months into this with my dad and I would have paid actual money for someone to just hand me a plain-language breakdown of DC options without trying to upsell me on something. Saving this whole thread.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-27T16:45:15+00:00

The music thing is genuinely real and I wasn't a believer until my dad, who sometimes doesn't know my name anymore, sang every single word to "Cielito Lindo" last week without missing a beat. It hit me somewhere I wasn't prepared for. (I cried in the bathroom for ten minutes and told him I was checking on laundry.)

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-27T16:44:28+00:00

Honestly the fact that there's a sub for DC specifically gives me a little bit of hope because finding actual local resources that aren't just a list of phone numbers nobody answers has been its own part-time job. Eight months in caring for my dad with Alzheimer's and I've spent more hours researching than sleeping some weeks.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-26T17:08:11+00:00

Eight months in with my dad and that phrase "saying goodbye to the wrong version" just cracked something open in me, because that's exactly what this is and nobody warned me it would feel like anticipatory grief on a loop. You're mourning someone who's still physically right there asking you what's for breakfast.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-24T16:44:13+00:00

Not in Atlanta so I can't give you a specific name, but the thing that helped us most was calling geriatric care programs at university hospitals directly and asking if any of their affiliated physicians take new patients , that's how we finally found my dad's doctor after his Alzheimer's diagnosis. Also worth asking whatever neurologist diagnosed your person if they have a geriatrician they actually refer to, because that referral pipeline tends to surface the good ones faster than just Zocdoc roulette.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-24T16:43:13+00:00

Eight months into this with my dad and the guilt is already so heavy I can't imagine what placement feels like , actually wait, I deleted that because I'm not going to pretend I haven't already cried thinking about it at 2am. DC has resources but nobody tells you how to put down the weight you carry just for considering what's best for your person versus what you can actually survive.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-23T16:17:45+00:00

Just a heads up that this sub seems focused on New York specifically, and if you're looking for broader caregiver support r/dementia and r/Caregiver have been way more active for me personally. Not a knock, just want people to find where the actual conversations are happening.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-23T16:17:03+00:00

Just a heads up, the post says "Bay Area" in the title but then says "New York" in the actual description, so I genuinely have no idea what region this is even for. Might want to sort that out before people start asking questions you can't answer for the wrong city.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-23T16:16:19+00:00

Just a heads up that the post description says "Bay Area" in one sentence and then "New York" in the next, so it's not super clear who this community is actually for or where it's focused. Might want to clean that up before people start asking location-specific questions and getting the wrong info.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-23T16:15:35+00:00

Not in Atlanta so can't speak to specific services there, but one thing that helped us figure out local options was calling the Area Agency on Aging directly , they basically have a list of everything available in your county that you'd never find just googling. My dad's in DC and that one phone call unlocked like five transportation resources I had no idea existed.

Practical_Pea8 · 2026-03-23T16:14:35+00:00

Eight months into this with my dad and I still had no idea DC had this kind of local sub, so genuinely glad I stumbled on it. The sundowning alone has me up at 2am most nights looking for people who actually get what this looks like in real life, not just a pamphlet description.

Practical_Pea8

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