We described palliative care as “aggressive symptom management for maximum quality of life at the present time.” The goal is to treat and remove, or reduce, symptoms that are bothering the person who is deeply forgetful. Symptoms such as pain, or problems like urinary tract infections, are handled in ways that make sense to the person living in Dementia Land.
Palliative care can include “end-of-life” or hospice care, but this narrow and incorrect understanding of palliative care restricts opportunities for important advanced care planning conversations to occur early in the disease process—AND TO INVOLVE THE PERSON WHO IS NOT QUITE YET DEEPLY FORGETFUL.
Well-meaning family and formal caregivers sometimes start to “overdo” for persons with dementia. “I don’t want her to get hurt” or “I don’t want him to feel embarrassed” or “It is just so much easier if I do (fill in the blank).” What people do not realize is that once a person with dementia forgets how to do an activity or task, he or she is rarely able to relearn it. There just aren’t enough nerve cells to knit together a new memory.
Formal and family caregivers of persons with dementia are dealing with the realities of Hurricane Harvey right now. As if their jobs were not difficult enough.
All cases of Alzheimer’s Disease are dementia, but not all dementia are Alzheimer’s Disease.
Helping a person with dementia brush his or her teeth requires extra skills to avoid the dreated “NO!” and other refusal behavior.