When Your Loved One Has Dementia by Joy A. Glenner

Author:Joy A. Glenner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2005-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

Allow extra time when working with your partner. With someone who has dementia, you must redefine success. If your idea of success is for your partner to move and do things as he or she has always done, then you are setting yourself and your loved one up for failure. The person has a disability and can no longer function the way he or she used to and cannot do things in the same amount of time as before.

Mrs. Smith needed to get her husband, Henry, ready to go to the day care center at 9:00 A.M. At 7:45 she woke him up to get dressed. She told him that he must get up. Ten minutes later she went back to the bedroom, and he was still lying in bed.

Henry did not understand her directions, did not remember them, and did not have the organization of movement skill necessary to sit up in bed. Mrs. Smith became stressed and frustrated. She knew she must help him sit up. She then:

• Tried to relax and took time to think through how to get her husband up from bed.

• Assessed the room for safety, adjusting the position of the chair where he would sit.

• Made herself slow down, realizing that she hadn’t allowed enough time; she resigned herself to arriving at the center late.

• Made sure she communicated well with Henry; she told him what she was doing and what she needed him to do as she helped him, step by step (see chap. 3 for information on good interaction techniques).

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