What causes delirium in people with dementia?
People with dementia are at great risk for delirium, which is a sudden uptick in confusion and other behaviors.
Helpful Hints for Handling Refusals: Bathing
Learn how to get a person with Alzheimer’s dementia to shower or bathe. I provide helpful bathing strategies in this blog.
Difference between hallucinations, illusions, and delusions?
An illusion is something that can be misinterpreted by your vision or or hearing. Hallucinations, on the other hand, involve hearing, seeing, or feeling something that is not there. Delusions are false beliefs usually arising from fears.
4 Ways to NICELY Take Away the Car Keys
The worst thing you can do (in most cases) is to hold a “family meeting” and explain to mom or dad why everyone wants them to stop driving. If the person with dementia is unaware of their memory problems and driving issues, this approach will get you nowhere!
Driving and Dementia: Should You Take Away the Keys?
Nearly everyone struggles with whether or not a person with dementia should be driving. This blog tackles some of the issues.
When Is It OK to Stop Medications for People with Alzheimer’s Disease
In today’s post, I am going to answer a question that I receive many times a week: When is it OK to stop two common medications, Aricept (donepezil) and Namenda (memantine) for people with Alzheimer’s Disease? The short answer: these medications are designed to slow down the nerve damage from […]
Is “therapeutic fibbing” a good idea?
Best ways to get a person with Alzheimer’s dementia to accept care is to enter their reality.
Can a Person with Dementia Safely Make Decisions?
The asking of the questions is a process; we are providing an opportunity to really find out what the other person is thinking. On one hand, we want to protect our loved ones from financial abuse or unsafe conditions. On the other hand, we want to respect their autonomy….their ability to make their own decisions.
Decision-Making & Dementia: Dimmer versus Switch
When Mrs. Q’s opinions differed from that of her granddaughter, the granddaughter quickly used the dementia diagnosis to ignore Mrs. Q’s choices. When Mrs. Q’s choices and opinions mirrored those of the granddaughter, the granddaughter believed that Mrs. Q had the capacity to make a decision. This isn’t how decisional capacity works.
5 Critical Questions to Ask When Selecting a Memory Care Facility (and the RED FLAGS that tell you to RUN!!!)
Pretty wallpaper, beautiful bedrooms, and a snazzy meditation room with aromatherapy and massage chairs are nice; however, if the direct-care staff are clueless about dementia care, none of these items mean anything.