Dementia is a cruel and unstoppable illness, so it can be devastating to be told it’s the diagnosis you’re given. It’s also terrifying for carers and children of someone with dementia, as they will be those who have to make the decisions and hope they are the right ones. Dementia takes and takes, but with the right strategies and understanding, you can ensure that your relative feels enriched and supported – no matter what.
If you are the main carer for someone with dementia, ensuring that you speak to an online solicitor about lasting power of attorney is a must. It’s important to offer personalised and compassionate care to anyone who is ill but to those living with dementia, it makes all the difference. Here are some ways that you can support a relative with dementia so that they can live their best life.
1. Keep compassion at the heart of your communication. It’s not easy to keep things kind and calm when caring for someone with dementia, because watching their personalities change is harder. As their cognition declines, it can be hard to follow conversations. You can speak slowly and with compassion, simple sentencing and patience and that will be a gamechanger for you and for then. There are visual cues with dementia patients, and that will help them to stay engaged.
2. Provide the right environment. If your relative is living with you, you can provide a safe and stable environment for them but that means speaking with the right services. There are care services that can come to your home to help to support your relatives, make them feel hygienic and safe, and give them a sense of home. With a secure and supportive space, you can bridge the gap between their house, yours and needing a care home.
3. Offer meaningful engagement. For a person living with dementia, personal connection is a must and you can offer that by ensuring that they feel seen and heard. Cognitive capacity doesn’t always impact relationships, but when someone is diagnosed with dementia they often start to withdraw from the relationships that they do have. Enduring engagement and enrichment can help your loved one to feel comfortable and heard, which is everything.
4. Be patient with behavioural changes. It’s not easy to handle the behavioural changes that come with dementia but they are a communication of unmet needs. From exhaustion and hunger to fear and frustration, there is something making them unhappy and they are unable to express it in the right way. It’s important to provide them with the right environment where they can feel like you are listening and helping, and they will benefit from patience from you.
5. Support their independence. There are so many amazing things that dementia patients can do that you can still support their independence to help them to feel valued and loved. Simple things such as visual reminders or listed tasks can help. When you encourage them to be independent, they will improve their self-esteem and feel far more in control.