One of the key areas that is affected as your loved one’s dementia progresses is communication. This is usually due to impaired speech, vision, and hearing, among others, resulting in struggles with conveying what they want to say or understanding what others are telling them.
Fortunately, there are certain strategies you can take to make communicating with them easier. Here are some of the strategies we use ourselves as a provider of in-home services in Pennsylvania at ACCESS CARE HUMAN SERVICES LLC, our home health agency in PA.
- Reminisce instead of saying “remember”
Memory is usually a sensitive subject for someone with dementia; not to mention, this is something that they will be unable to do. Thus, instead of urging them to remember something and cause them to be frustrated, just tell the story of what happened.
- Reassure instead of lecturing
Did your senior loved one miss something in their routine? There is little point in lecturing them about what they should or should not have done since they can’t help it. Extend your compassion and patience and reassure them that everything is alright.
- Distract instead of reasoning
Is your loved one insisting on doing the same thing over and over again, forgetting that they’ve just done it? Don’t attempt to reason out or explain. Instead, try to turn their attention into something else.
Better yet, enlist the help of a provider of home health care in Springfield, Pennsylvania, so they don’t miss anything.
All these said, it’s understandable not to have the patience and energy to extend to your loved one every time.
When you find yourself feeling the first signs of burnout and the need for a break, you can call on our respite care service to take on your labor of love temporarily.