Someone asked me to give them information that would help caregivers for an article. So, I wrote the

Michael Ellenbogen

 I will give you a bunch of bullet points and if interested we can speak about the ones you would like to know about so you can write the article.

 

 

You must be come a detective if you want to become a good caregiver.

 

Need to learn to think outside the box

 

Expect the worse of thinks and if you are surprised you did not educate yourself enough.

 

This dises is like going down a curve road and you need to be prepared of what a head to stay on track and it will not be easy

 

You will be surprised that most time you can find away to still communicate if you are wiling to change and learn new ways.

 

Don’t delay to take over what your partner use to do. It will not only create stress for you but the person with dementia.

 

This dises is far worse than you can imagen. Just imagen that you are going in reverse from an adult to a child again but you still have the knowledge on how things should be done but no longer capable of doing it.

 

Don’t argue about things like are not true or they remembered incorrectly.  

 

If you are going to have an angry face or tone expect it 10 times worse from them.

 

Make the environment safe, quite and plenty of light.

 

Person’s temperature will change constantly so you will need ways to adjust for that.

 

If something does not work like showering there are many reason why it will not work. There is definitely a solution at you try to figure out why. Temperature, embarrassment, touching the person, lighting, stability, fear of water. Make it a fun time by adding music. An not what you like but what they like and at the right volume which can change from one day to the other.

 

I hate the word sundowning. You should try to satay focused all day at 110 present to just get buy through the day. You would be burnt out by end of day.

 

I also hate the word wandering. I have always liked to go for walks and explore. Why would I change later on?

 

If something triggers a negative reaction you need to understand the person history and role play with them to figure it out. For example a person who was in the hospital was near the elevator and every time the elevator bell went off he became combative. In his early days he was boxer but they did not know that. So he did what he always knew to do. Trust me there is a reason for why they do some cray tings if you can figure it out.   

Battlebuddy

Michael , I thought a lot of these were very good. And don’t forget to encourage caregivers to join support groups such as this! Because no one will understand you like your peeps in the trenches.

Michael Ellenbogen

 And this is what the article turned into.

 

http://allansvann.blogspot.com/