Tips for Providing Effective Dementia Care in NJ

Dementia care can be more effective and meaningful when you understand how dementia affects an individual’s behavior and how, by practicing certain dementia care strategies, you can ease the effects and improve your loved one’s quality and enjoyment of life.

Dementia typically causes individuals to become agitated, aggressive, confused and suspicious. In addition, persons with dementia tend to wander about and can put themselves at risk of injury and becoming lost.

Be a Calming Influence

It’s easy to understand how persons with dementia can become agitated and frustrated when they have difficulty completing tasks that were once routine and easy. Following are examples of dementia care strategies that can be used to help calm these feelings:

• Allow your loved one as much independence as possible in completing tasks. Be there to assist. Break up the tasks in steps so they’re easier to do.
• Help your loved one maintain a feeling of usefulness and purpose by assisting him or her, as needed, in completing chores such as washing dishes, dusting and folding laundry.
• Allow your loved one to make choices, but limit them. For instance, lay out a couple of sets of clothing to select from.
• Make exercise a part of each day for more effective dementia care. Exercise, such as walking, tends to calm persons with dementia and can serve as a good outlet for those who wander.
• Offer your loved one chances for social interaction. This could be accomplished through a trip to the grocery, for instance. Providing your loved one opportunities to interact with someone other than yourself, say a home care provider, can be a positive experience.
• Plan challenging tasks, like bathing, at a time when your loved one is less agitated.

Play It Safe

Safety is a significant consideration in dementia care. For a person with dementia, the once comfortable surroundings of home can become dangerous—if precautions aren’t taken.

• Move furniture and eliminate throw rugs and clutter to provide safe walkways through the house. This reduces the risk of falling.
• Prevent access to dangerous items, such as medicine, knives, guns, alcohol and toxic cleaning supplies, by installing locks.
• To prevent burns, turn down the water heater setting.
• Install locks on outside windows and doors to prevent your loved one from leaving and getting lost. As an added precaution, you can install alarms on doors and windows.
• Consider taking the knobs off your gas stove when it is not in use.