Try: The following are suggestions for caregivers working with a Care recipient (cr) who wanders as a result of dementia a written diary or log may be helpful to understand what leads to wandering write down your observations about wandering for several days is the cr trying to find a room what was going on before wandering started what time of day is it consider how medications mealtime weather bath time and other people relate to wandering wandering may be due to the cr searching for a part of life lost to the disease or for a person place or object from the past reminiscing about things from the past may be comforting photo albums travel books etc may be helpful ways to reminisce for some crs with dementia wandering is a coping mechanism to relieve stress and tension trying to stop the wandering may increase agitation and cause anger and frustration wandering may occur when a change of location is anticipated in event of relocation slowly introduce person to idea visit new location several times prior to move to help orient the cr to new surroundings involve the cr in actual move if possible when in new environment such as day care hospital or long term care setting stay with the cr to provide reassurance about the new surroundings a person who wanders at the same time every day may be returning to a former schedule or routine for example a person may be trying to get back to work after lunch information references mace n & rabins p 1999 the 36-hour day baltimore the johns hopkins university press robinson a spencer b & white l 1992 understanding difficult behaviors ypsilanti mi eastern michigan university

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Categories: Emotional Psychological, Medical Physical

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Keywords: Dementia

*This information is listed as a Fact Sheet and is not explicitly medically licensed