Try: When caring for someone with dementia caregivers often find themselves having to learn new skills deal with situations they never dealt with before cope with feelings of frustration work toward understanding the cause of certain behaviors to more effectively deal with them people with dementia are often unable to tell you exactly what is wrong caregivers need to be aware of and look for signs of physical discomfort when a person exhibits an unwanted behavior look at these possible causes physically ill experiencing pain needing to use the bathroom hungry or thirsty frightened by how someone approached them or talked to them experiencing a side effect of a medication experiencing a medication interaction if they are taking more than one medication anxious about being in an unfamiliar surrounding distracted by too much activity in the area distracted by noise they may be agitated by bright lights not enough light loud bold colors room temperatures people with memory loss may recognize the need to eat or drink or use the toilet but are unable to locate or ask where or how to satisfy those needs in frustration they may then have a sudden change in behavior or functioning level someone someone’s attitude mood or approach when talking to a person with dementia is very important caregivers can alleviate distress and set the tone for almost every interaction because the individual with dementia takes their cues from them if someone is abrupt talking too loudly or rushing through a task this will be communicated to the person with memory loss and he or she may react negatively if a caregiver speaks calmly and reassuringly this can reduce anxiety for the older adult information references references "mental health mental illness healthy aging a nh guide for older adults and caregivers" by nami nh 2001 available at www nami org
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Categories: Sage, Topic, Behavior Challenging, Communication, Emotional Psychological, Medical Physical, Independence, Some Supervision, Maximum Supervision, Cognitive Awareness, Somewhat Aware, Unaware, Long-Term Memory, So-So L T Memory, Poor L T Memory, Short-Term Memory, So-So S T Memory, Poor S T Memory
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Keywords: Agitated confused memory loss challenging behavior communication combative wants to go home wandering wanders shadowing verbal repetition yelling yells verbal outbursts sleep problems odd sleep patterns
*This information is listed as a Fact Sheet and is not explicitly medically licensed