Fiducia TogetherAlzheimer's disease
The most common cause of dementia. It takes memory first, then more, and the person remains a person throughout.
Important: This page is general information, not medical advice, and it is not a diagnosis. If you are worried about your health or someone else's, speak to a GP, pharmacist, or call 111. In an emergency, call 999.
What it is
Families almost always describe the same moment. Not a dramatic one. A small thing that didn't fit, months before anyone said the word out loud.
Alzheimer's is a physical disease of the brain. Proteins build up, connections between cells fail, and brain tissue shrinks. It accounts for around six in ten dementia cases in the UK, and roughly 982,000 people here live with dementia of some kind.
It is progressive, and at present there is no cure. But the gap between a well-supported person with Alzheimer's and a poorly supported one is enormous, and that gap is made of things anybody can influence.
Signs you might notice
Recent memory goes first, while things from decades ago stay vivid. Somebody can recount a wedding in 1974 and not recall lunch.
The same question comes round again, and the answer lands fresh each time.
Familiar words go missing mid-sentence. Objects turn up in strange places.
Judgement slips before anyone notices it has. Confusion about time and place. Withdrawal from things once enjoyed, often because they have become quietly difficult.
How it can affect day-to-day life
The hardest part is rarely the memory. It's the change in the relationship, and the grief that arrives while the person is still here.
Practical risk builds gradually: the hob left on, the front door at night, medication taken twice or not at all. Money becomes a real vulnerability, and scammers target this group deliberately.
Carers pay a heavy price too. Depression and exhaustion among family carers of people with dementia are high, and they get worse when the caring is invisible to everybody else.
Supporting someone well
Do not correct or quiz. If somebody is looking for their mother who died in 1998, asking them to remember that is asking them to grieve again from scratch. Answer the feeling instead: they are looking for safety, so give them that.
Keep the environment stable and well lit. Contrast helps enormously, so a dark toilet seat on a white pan is genuinely useful, not a small detail.
Protect routine, and protect the things the person is still good at. Doing a task badly beats having it done for you.
Get the legal work done early, while capacity is clear. Lasting power of attorney arranged in year one saves a family a court application in year four. Read mental capacity for what that actually means in law.
Fiducia Guardian was built for this: one place holding the day, the medicines, the care plan, the consents and the whole care team, so the fifth professional through the door does not ask a family the same three questions again.
Where to get help
Ask the GP for a memory assessment. A diagnosis unlocks things: support, treatment, benefits, and time to plan while planning is still possible.
Ask the local authority for a Care Act assessment for the person, and a carer's assessment for yourself. They are separate rights and the second one gets forgotten.
Alzheimer's Society run a Dementia Support Line on 0333 150 3456.
Tools we make that might help
These are our own products. We have put them here because they do something specific for this condition, not because every page needs a list.
Fiducia Guardian
The day, the medicines, the care plan and the care team in one record a family actually controls.
Fiducia Life
Familiar routine, life story and the Library, held somewhere the person can reach it themselves.
Last reviewed 2026-08-28 by Fiducia Together · Next review due 2027-08-28
Important: This page is general information, not medical advice, and it is not a diagnosis. If you are worried about your health or someone else's, speak to a GP, pharmacist, or call 111. In an emergency, call 999.