August 17, 2022
Dementia can be incredibly frustrating for both you and your senior to face. As her caregiver, you want her life to be as comfortable and easy as possible. But that means approaching some situations may have to be slightly different than you expect. You’re accounting for the changes your senior’s brain is going through while also trying to protect her quality of life.
Complicated explanations can be complex for your elderly family member to understand because of the cognitive changes she’s experiencing. As her brain changes, more extended sets of instructions also become frustrating. When you keep explanations simple and easy for your elderly family member to follow, she will experience less anxiety. It’s also easier for her to continue to do the things that she wants to do.
Remembering to do essential things doesn’t come easily for someone with dementia. That means that having additional reminders for essential tasks can be helpful. Leaving notes where your elderly family member can find them and encouraging her to carry a notebook she can refer to can be helpful as well. These reminders can support your senior as she moves through her daily and weekly routines.
Many emotions are involved in dementia, both for you and your senior. For her, she’s facing her brain changing and unable to do anything about it. You must remember that your senior can’t always control how she reacts because of those intense feelings. Giving her time to adjust and collect herself can help.
People with dementia find it difficult to focus on a specific task, like eating a meal. Gentle redirection can help your elderly family member to focus on what she needs to be doing at any given moment. Home care providers can help you learn the easiest ways to keep your elderly family member focused on what she needs to do.
Taking care of a senior with dementia involves a lot of time and energy. If you’re not taking the time that you need to rest, you’re going to wear yourself out completely. 24-hour home care providers ensure that your elderly family member has helped at all hours of the day or night so that you can rest when you need to do so. Because 24-hour home care services can be there whenever you need them, you have the flexibility to continue to be a caregiver.
Having the help you both need ensures that you and your senior can better face the challenges that dementia brings her way. As your elderly family member’s condition progresses, she’ll face even more difficulties, and what you learn now can help you to manage those situations as they arise.
