Contents:
- Medical Video: Caregiver Training: Refusal to Bathe | UCLA Alzheimer's and Dementia Care
- Various tips for caring for dementia people who experience behavioral changes
- First principle: not behavior that must be changed
- Check with your doctor
- See what the behavior means
- Get to know the triggers of behavior change
- Don't get hung up with yesterday
Medical Video: Caregiver Training: Refusal to Bathe | UCLA Alzheimer's and Dementia Care
Living with family members affected by dementia is indeed not easy. People who experience dementia, of course, cannot live alone, there must be a family member who cares for her everyday. One of the biggest challenges in caring for a dementia person is dealing with it when he experiences behavioral changes. The behavioral changes that occur can sometimes make you irritated, annoyed, even desperate. It's hard to be sure, but to ease the burden, you can follow the tips for caring for the following dementia people.
Various tips for caring for dementia people who experience behavioral changes
Caring for dementia people is actually easy. You have to turn your brain, the response you have to do when someone you care about experiences a change in behavior. Of course, the behavior that he does is very unusual, it can even make you annoyed yourself. Therefore, you can do various tips for caring for the following dementia people.
First principle: not behavior that must be changed
People with dementia, have very short memories, always feel confused, and their behavior changes easily. However, remember that the patient is experiencing a nervous breakdown in his brain, so it's useless to tell him that what he did was wrong or strange. If you just try to change your behavior, then you will definitely not succeed. Instead, the thing you have to do is change the environment around it, to make it comfortable.
For example, if the person you care for suddenly falls asleep on the floor, then the thing you have to do is make it comfortable to sleep there. For example, prepare a thick mattress and cover it to make it comfortable. Meanwhile, if you tell him to go back to his room, maybe then he will obey. However, a few moments later, it's not impossible you have found it again on the floor.
Check with your doctor
When you are treating a dementia person, you also have to diligently take him to the doctor. Especially if he experiences continuous behavior changes. This can be caused by side effects from the medication given to him. For example, the drug can make it more hallucinating.
If indeed the side effects of the drug, maybe the doctor can change the dose of the drug or even replace it with another type of drug. Most importantly, you must consult with the doctor who handles it.
See what the behavior means
When a behavior change occurs, don't get annoyed or annoyed immediately at him. Better, see what he wants to do. Even though it has dementia, sometimes what patients do has a specific purpose.
People with dementia cannot clearly tell what they need or want, so they will do things that might be unusual.
For example, when he took out all his clothes from the closet. Surely you are confused about what caused this. It could be, he did this because he was confused there were no other activities he could do. So, you can just invite her to pursue her hobby, so she can spend her time doing useful activities.
Get to know the triggers of behavior change
Every oddity of behavior is actually triggered by something. For example, a patient feels bored, depressed, or afraid of the surrounding environment, then this behavior change can suddenly appear. When this happens, you are required to be more sensitive and understand the person you care about.
If indeed the patient is bored, you can keep busy with a variety of useful activities, such as making a craft or just doing light homework together. This activity can make him busy. Or if he feels fear and anxiety, you should be by his side so he feels calm.
Don't get hung up with yesterday
Don't be surprised if you might be confronted with different behaviors every day. This indicates that you have to be more creative and play your brain to take a different approach every day. Remember again, that you cannot control and do not know what behavior to do, so all you can do is continue to make it comfortable and busy with various useful things.
