understanding dementia behavior, part eight.

eighth tip from fca: respond with affection and reassurance. people with dementia often feel confused, anxious and unsure of themselves. further, they often get reality confused and may recall things that never really occurred. avoid trying to convince them they are wrong. stay focused on the feelings they are demonstrating (which are real) and respond with verbal and physical expressions of comfort, support and reassurance. sometimes holding hands, touching, hugging and praise will get the person to respond when all else fails.

my addition to this tip: funny how this just happened to me this week. my client was telling me all about X and the whole session was about working on how she would approach her caregiver to tell them not to do X anymore. i talked to the caregiver the next day and it turns out X never occurred. awesome. this client is also the one who recently asked me to help her find her mind. yep, totally got teary eyed in that conversation. anyway, this type of confusion usually happens during the middle stages of dementia.

the majority of the above information is from one of my favorite sources: family caregiver alliance, www.caregiver.org

read my disclaimer here.