Dementia & elder care
Dementia care is not just memory loss. It is the late-afternoon confusion, the repeated question, the night wandering, the meal that suddenly is not safe, the appointment where you need three months of evidence in ten minutes, and the quiet work of planning while your person can still take part.
CareHaven supports that work in two ways. First, it gives you tools that work today: memory-care tracking, pain and behavior observations, mealtime watch, advance directives, the Letter of Intent, scripts for hard conversations, and doctor-ready summaries. Second, it has a focused dementia roadmap that keeps deepening those tools without turning the app into a diagnosis engine or a course library.
Nothing on this page diagnoses dementia, predicts a stage, or replaces a clinician. It helps you notice what changed, remember what helped, and carry a clearer story into the next conversation.
What works today
Memory care and behavior changes
For a person with dementia or cognitive changes, CareHaven can show memory-care surfaces that gather behavior episodes, pain checks, routines, familiar faces, orientation cues, and practical safety tools in one place. Available
When a hard moment happens, you can log what you saw in plain language: restlessness, confusion, agitation, wandering, repeated questions, or another behavior change. A behavior episode can include what came before it, what you tried, and whether the moment passed. Those notes are especially useful when the pattern is not obvious in the moment.
PAINAD and hidden pain
When someone cannot easily say "I hurt," pain may show up as a behavior change. CareHaven includes PAINAD, a structured way to observe breathing, sounds, facial expression, body language, and whether comforting helps. It is for people who can no longer report pain clearly, not a general quiz for every older adult. Available
PAINAD does not diagnose pain. It gives you a shared language and a dated record to bring to a nurse, doctor, hospice team, or care facility.
Could it be medical?
If your person suddenly acts different, the first useful question is often physical: tooth pain, ear pain, constipation, infection, reflux, dehydration, or a medication change. The "Could it be medical?" walkthrough helps you check the body first and turn what you find into a doctor note. Available
Mealtime Watch
Mealtime can change with dementia. CareHaven's Mealtime Watch is a quick way to mark whether someone ate well, picked at food, or refused, and to note signs of swallowing trouble such as coughing, throat-clearing, pocketing food, or a wet voice. When those patterns build up, the app surfaces that it may be worth raising with a clinician. Available
Scripts for hard moments
The In-the-Moment Coach includes say / skip / why cards for common dementia moments: the same question again and again, "I want to go home," accusations, refusing care, and late-day confusion. The goal is not to win an argument. It is to have kinder words ready when your own words are gone. Available
Legal and emergency readiness
CareHaven includes several readiness tools that matter in elder care:
- The Health & Communication Passport explains how to care for this person.
- The Care Card gives first responders the first-ten-seconds essentials.
- The Letter of Intent captures what should happen if you cannot be there.
- Advance directives and decision notes help you remember what was decided and where the papers live.
These tools are not legal documents and do not replace an elder-law attorney, a physician, or your local legal process. They keep the human story and practical details from being trapped in one person's head. Available
What Helped
What Helped adds simple, optional chips to behavior episodes: what might have set the moment off, what you tried, and whether it helped. Free text still stays available, because a 3 a.m. log should never become paperwork. Available
To use it:
- Open Memory Care and add a behavior episode.
- Mark what you saw, such as agitation, wandering, repeated questions, sundowning, or another change.
- Choose any likely trigger chips you know, such as noise, pain, hunger, fatigue, or a change in routine. Skip this if you are not sure.
- Choose the response chips for what you tried, such as a quiet room, music, a snack, a walk, reassurance, or giving space.
- Mark whether it helped, partly helped, did not help, or you are not sure yet.
- Save the episode. If the moment is still unfolding, leave it open and come back later from the follow-up prompt.
Over time, CareHaven can show careful, honest rollups such as "quiet room helped 3 of the 4 times you tried it" or "noise was marked before 6 of 9 agitation episodes where you marked a trigger." It will always show the count behind the statement, and it will never say a trigger caused the behavior.
If a very intense moment just ended, CareHaven may offer a one-minute reset for you. It is a small after-the-storm beat, not a judgment. Open episodes can also show a "still open" follow-up so you can come back later and close the loop.
Three A.M. capture
The hardest episodes often happen when typing is least realistic. Three A.M. capture lets you log dementia-related moments by voice or a very short quick-capture path, so wandering, agitation, or a night episode does not disappear into a vague note. Available
Familiar faces
For a person with memory changes, familiar people can be part of orientation and comfort. CareHaven lets you add familiar faces with a photo and relationship, so the information is ready when a caregiver needs it. Available
What is coming next
The next dementia work focuses on the moments caregivers hit most often, not on adding more screens.
Found in Fifteen
CareHaven will not track a person by GPS. Found in Fifteen is the opposite approach: prepare the first fifteen minutes if someone goes missing. Coming soon
The plan builds on the existing wandering crisis plan: a current photo, what they look like, where they tend to head, calming words for when they are found, who to call, and a ready-to-share flyer that you choose to send. It is about fast, ethical preparedness, not surveillance.
Say This Now
The script cards already exist. Say This Now brings the right script closer to the moment: after you log a repeated question, refusal of care, or other hard episode, CareHaven can offer the matching card right there. Coming soon
Doctor Day Packet
Doctor Day Packet is a parking-lot summary for the appointment. It will gather behavior episodes, what helped, medication changes, falls, PAINAD trends, mealtime watch notes, and the questions you saved, then turn them into a clear visit packet. Empty sections will stay empty; CareHaven will not pad the story. Coming soon
Crossroads
Crossroads is an early-stage elder-care slice for decisions with closing windows: the driving conversation, power of attorney and advance-directive readiness, Personal Voice banking while speech is strong, and life-story recording as connection. Coming soon
It will be guidance and organization, not legal advice and not a prediction about decline.
Still further out
Several dementia and elder-care ideas remain on the roadmap: a stage-aware compass, a sundown plan, good-hours activity suggestions, grief and ambiguous-loss support, hospital discharge support, and a broader important-papers locker. Planned
CareHaven will keep the same guardrails: no hospice eligibility detection, no stage-duration forecasting, no caregiver-administered cognitive testing, no fake community, and no GPS tracking of a person with dementia.
Related pages
- Medical — pain, health changes, mealtime watch, and doctor visits.
- Safety & crisis plans — wandering plans, Care Card, Passport, and Letter of Intent.
- Caregiver tools — scripts, Calm Tools, Share the Load, and respite planning.
- Support tailored to a diagnosis — how condition-aware tools appear only when they fit.