How to Care for Seniors with Dementia More Effectively

As dementia progresses, family caregivers can start to feel more and more overwhelmed. The key is to find ways to help seniors in ways that are more effective. The easiest way to do this is with some extra help. Home care providers can do so much to ease the burden for seniors and their family caregivers, making dementia easier to manage.

Focus on Safety

Above all, seniors with dementia need safety. Ensuring that seniors are as safe as possible might mean bringing in elder care providers who can tackle those tasks. There might be home modifications that seniors need in order to be safer, especially in the bathroom and around stairs. Making those changes can dramatically improve how well seniors with dementia react to their environment.

Simplify Communication

Using simple and clear language with seniors who have dementia is absolutely vital. It’s also important to get the senior’s eye contact before talking to make sure they’re aware that someone is speaking to them. It can also help to use both non-verbal cues and notes to further convey information.

Encourage Mental and Physical Activity

Both mental and physical activity are crucial for every senior. But they’re even more crucial for seniors who have dementia, regardless of how far the disease has progressed. Seniors need to get the go-ahead from their doctors before starting to exercise, but once they have that permission, getting moving is important. There are lots of different ways to move more, so start slowly with something like walking. Brain-stimulating activities that are challenging and fun are the best options.

Foster Socialization

Seniors with dementia benefit greatly from being around other people. At first, they might feel anxious about socializing, especially if their memory problems are becoming more pronounced. Socializing helps them to feel less isolated, however, and it can be incredibly mentally stimulating as well. Elder care providers make excellent companions for seniors, and they can also help with other tasks.

Offer Patience and Flexibility

As dementia progresses, it might seem as if seniors don’t know what is going on. But they’re able to pick up on the feelings and moods of the people around them. When family caregivers become irritated and frustrated, that comes through and impacts the seniors themselves. Offering patience and rolling with the punches does everyone involved a lot of good.

Use Memory Tools

Seniors who have dementia benefit greatly from memory tools, whether those are labels, calendars, picture labels, notes, or other types of memory aids. Using these tools is not a bad thing at all and it can boost independence for seniors who have dementia.

Get Extra Help Sooner

One problem that family caregivers face is that they wait too long to get help. Bringing home care providers in sooner rather than later offers a lot of assistance that can make this process so much easier. Waiting to get that help only makes life more difficult.

Home care providers can offer not only hands-on help for seniors with dementia, but they can also help family caregivers to learn more about what they need to know in order to make this caregiving journey easier on the people they love.