Creating a plan for caregiving, and regularly updating it, will help you determine what care you can and cannot provide. It will also help you come up with an answer when someone asks “How can I help?”.

While every person’s experience is unique, CJD tends to cause memory loss, confusion, difficulty with balance and walking, personality changes and involuntary muscle jerks. Read on for practical tips to help you relieve many of these symptoms.

Activities of daily living are activities related to personal care and include eating, bathing, dressing, getting in or out of bed or a chair, and using the toilet. When people are unable to perform these activities, they need help from their caregivers. A physical or occupational therapist can help you with safety, mobility, feeding and more, as well as introduce you to the many tools that can help you provide care without injury.

While there is an infectious form of CJD, even this rare form of CJD is actually quite difficult to catch from someone else. Caregivers should feel free to have plenty of social contact with their loved ones, but should follow “universal precautions” if they provide any medical assistance.