Be Patient: Try to be as patient and calm as you can. Someone living with a memory impairing disease responds to the non-verbal cues and tone you set.

Be Flexible: Try to be flexible and reduce expectations of your loved one. Be flexible and forgiving of yourself – call us if you need to talk 239-437-3007.

Loving Touch: Use touch appropriately. A hug or holding one’s hand goes a long way in providing support to someone who is frightened and having difficulty in understanding what is happening.

Simple Communication and Story Telling: Use simple communication. If there is difficulty in understanding, restate in simpler terms. Look at photos or magazine pictures and make up stories together about the people in the pictures.

Redirection: If your loved one is repeatedly asking to go home, acknowledge their feelings and try to redirect their focus to something pleasant. As an example, if they say, “I want to go home,” say, “We have to stay here a little longer. In the meantime, let’s go for a walk and see if we can get something to eat.”

Reduce Anxiety: Try to limit their exposure to the news. The constant breaking news updates can increase one’s anxiety even if the news update is not pertinent to their particular situation.

Maintain Routine: Try to maintain daily routines where you can.

Reduce Exposure: Remember that crowds of people, noisy loud conversations, being in strange or different surroundings and any change in the regular routine and sleep patterns of someone living with dementia can all provoke behaviors, so try to reduce exposure where you can.

Inform People: If you have had to evacuate to a shelter, inform people as appropriate around you that the person has a memory impairment.

Plan Familiar Activities: To help reduce the anxiety of a new setting, try to build in activities that your loved one may enjoy, such as taking a relaxing walk or listening to calming music.

Smaller Groups are Better: Often a person living with dementia does better with smaller groups of people and can manage things better earlier in the day.

Lookout for Unmet Needs: Remember to pay attention to other potential unmet needs causing behaviors such as hunger, needing to go to the bathroom, thirst, and pain.

Need to talk to someone? Call us at the center, we are here for you 239-437-3007.