Sacred Heart Senior Living

How to Help Someone Diagnosed With Dementia Make Everyday Decisions

By the time someone is given a dementia diagnosis, the disease has likely already affected their thinking, memory and concentration. Decision making for some people without a dementia diagnosis can be hard! Having to make certain decisions, especially without any help may cause a demetia patient anxiety.

The staff at Sacred Heart Senior Living puts the practices we are going to share with you to use daily with our residents. We undertand our residents difficulties because we make an assessment of their overall health before their admission, we have extensive conversations with family members about their loved ones life so that we can learn their likes and dislikes, what makes them happy, what makes them sad, what their hobbies were, what they did for a living,what their daily lives were like before their diagnosis.

1. Know the person in your care, learn their likes, their habits, this will help you to offer things and choices to them that they might have decided upon by themselves in the past but now can't.

2.When offering something to somone with dementia make the options "this or that" two choices and when doing that, show them what their choices are - chicken or beef, the red shirt or the blue shirt.

3. Remember that if you ask close ended questions (yes or no), the answer will usually be "no" because they may not recall or comprehend what you just said so ask open ended, easy questions.

4. Know their habits so they dont have to make a decision...did they always take a bath or a shower? Did they like coffee or tea? Do they hate eating liver? What are they toileting habits - take them to the bathroom at regular intervals, especially if you arent in "their home" so they dont need to worrying about getting to the bathroom in time or where to find it.

Someone with dementia, especially your parent or spouse may not want to admit that they can't make a decision or be able to communicate their decision. Whether the dementia diagnosis is Alzheimer's disease, Lewy Body dementia, Vascular dementia, Frontotemporal dementia - these diseases cause a myriad of damage- atrophy, formation of plaque that destroys neurons in the brain, cell/neuron death from lack of blood flow or oxygen thus affecting their ability to make healthy decisions, affects their cognitive and physical abilites and functions.

For more information and tips about how to help your loved one living with dementia, please call Sacred Heart Senior Living for information about our support groups, educational workshops or a private consultation.