How Do You Talk To Someone With Dementia – If someone you love has been diagnosed with some form of dementia, you may struggle to communicate with them and may even have changed your approach.
Challenges in breaking down communication into simple ideas, concepts or instructions can be frustrating. And it is just as difficult for someone living with a rapidly declining ability to understand others and be understood.
How Do You Talk To Someone With Dementia
Depending on the severity of the condition, someone with dementia may have any or all of the following characteristics:
How To Talk To A Person With Dementia
Dementia describes a decline in mental abilities that is so severe that it interferes with your daily activities. It is a progressive condition that causes changes in the brain that lead to increased forgetfulness and a reduced ability to think, reason, and solve problems. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, which also includes Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and mixed dementia.
Learn more about the progression of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and the challenges of communicating with someone with the condition from Dr. Maureen Nash of Elder Place in Portland, Oregon. Listen to the conversation here.
Our team of experts understand that caring for someone with dementia requires a wide range of services to help you meet the changing physical, emotional and spiritual needs of everyone involved. You can find a geriatric specialist in our provider list.
This information is not intended to replace professional medical care. Always follow the instructions of a healthcare professional. You are here: Home 1 / Blog 2 / Professionals 3 / Activity professionals 4 / Communication about Alzheimer’s disease
How To Give Medication To Someone With Dementia
Don’t stop talking. As Alzheimer’s disease progresses, it gradually impairs a person’s ability to communicate verbally. One of the classic symptoms of Alzheimer’s is difficulty “finding the right word” during a conversation. Another common difficulty is parsing a logical sequence of statements. These drawbacks are as frustrating as you can imagine, and you’ve probably seen them. Communicating with Alzheimer’s is difficult, but don’t stop trying. What’s more frustrating for a person with Alzheimer’s than having trouble communicating their thoughts to you is if you think you’ve stopped trying or don’t want to talk to them.
This may seem contradictory at best. Yes, there are some skills that can greatly improve your communication with someone with dementia, but each of the suggestions below will increase the effectiveness of your communication, no matter who you’re talking to. We just don’t take the time or effort to be genuine in conversation.
Be honest. Like children, people with Alzheimer’s disease intuitively know when someone is being honest with them. They often demand honesty from you, verbally or otherwise, and caregivers and family members often interpret this as trouble. This honesty does not require that you are always completely honest and truthful. (Read more about the truth of a person with Alzheimer’s disease.) This honesty is emotional sincerity, communicating in the moment.
Bernice looks at her Fifties Sears Fashions book and shows Holly the clothes she ordered and even designed. (Bernice worked at Sears in the 60s and gave sewing seminars to women around the country.)[pullquote]…a person with dementia often cannot remember how to connect with others and can only deal with their situation, here and now. Connecting is up to me, up to us.
Coping With An Alzheimer’s Or Dementia Diagnosis
~ Nancy Pearce Alzheimer’s[/pullquote] Suddenly she looked at Holly and said with genuine concern, “I can’t see my mother today!” Holly simply said, “I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Bernice turns to her book, a potential mini-crisis averted.
This incident took place at a time when Bernice was entering the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease and showed less sincerity than judgment. Total honesty requires Holly to tell Bernice that her mother is dead. No matter how saying, “Your mother died a long time ago, Bernice,” or “your mother is dead, Bernice, you know it,” would have upset Bernice and repeated the grieving process she had endured for years. before. It is not necessary. And the whole process repeats itself the next time he asks about his mother.
Maintain eye contact. It is also important to make and maintain eye contact when talking to people with Alzheimer’s disease. It shows that you’re paying attention and helps him understand what you’re saying, or at least what you mean. The lack of this intimate connection shows her that you are not really interested in her as a person, you are not interested in what she has to say to you. Eye contact also reassures him that you are honest.
Keep your sense of humor. Laughter may not always be the best medicine, as the saying suggests, but it is a very effective medicine, and its effects are good. A person often retains their sense of humor after dementia robs them of many memories and other cognitive abilities. The limbic system is responsible for emotional memories, and this part of the brain remains relatively functional when other cognitive abilities are impaired in Alzheimer’s disease. Be careful not to make a practical joke about someone with dementia and keep the level of humor appropriate for their stage. For example, political humor is not good, but a funny mime probably works.
How To Talk To Someone With Dementia
Use touch to reinforce communication. Touch can be as simple as holding hands or gently touching the forehead with a soothing motion. This can be a back massage or a gentle massage of the hands or feet. Currently, there is not much clinical research on the effects of massage and touch on people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia, but doctors report many benefits.
The following is about Massage and Alzheimer’s Disease: What Would Maslow Say?, an article by Ann Catlin, LMT, NCTMB, OTR:
As a licensed massage therapist and Compassionate Touch practitioner, I have seen the transformation that can occur when intentional touch is provided, improving the quality of life for people with Alzheimer’s. Example: The woman who stepped back and thinks without words, who looked me in the eye and said “thank you” after a hand massage. The gentleman, his agitation soothed by a simple back massage, allowed the nurse’s assistant to help him dress without the usual struggle. The director of operations who told me, “She’s been here a few months, but when I gave her a hand massage, I felt like I really knew her for the first time!” So what is at the heart of these seemingly magical moments? There was clearly something deeper going on that went beyond just touching. We can study the relationship between human needs and well-being to gain a better understanding of how deeply we touch.
Realize that non-verbal communication is an important form of communication, and your loved one with dementia may understand your body language better than your words. If you cross your arms in front of you and tell your mom, “It’s a beautiful day and we’re having fun today,” she’ll see that you’re shutting her up more clearly than she’ll hear it. Is yours.
Tips When Someone With Dementia Wants Her Mom Or Dad
Avoiding or eliminating background noise and other distractions. Impaired brain function and hearing loss make it difficult to separate background noise from the sound (conversation, music, or whatever) that is important at the moment.
Don’t argue. You have entered the Alzheimer’s universe, and its first rule is that you lose all pretensions. Arguments are based on the ability to reason. Reason, along with memory and judgment, is a cognitive domain and is involved in the early development of many dementias, including Alzheimer’s. Arguing with someone with dementia is like reasoning with someone who has lost the ability to reason. It might be time for a shower or a bath. You know mom hasn’t showered in three days, but when you mention it, she looks at you and tells you she showered this morning. Your first thought is to remind him that he’s gone, that his last shower was three days ago. No matter how right you are, no matter how well you remind him of that fact, you’ve just started an argument and…. Well, rule No. 1. But that’s not the worst; you and everyone involved will be disappointed, possibly angry, and nobody will achieve anything. If this repetition continues for more than a few minutes, drop it. It’s not that important; at least it’s not critical. The best way is to direct her attention to something you know she wants to do and come back to the shower later from a different angle.
Give your loved one time to respond. LOL
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