Aging in itself is confusing for seniors. Going through rapid changes in the body and the way people respond to those changes in their loved ones has the client with dementia unsure of what they can and cannot do. Dementia adds to the chaos that crumbles the lives of many senior citizens. Dementia affects the mind the most. Though the cognitive abilities might still be working fine, the ability to recognize names, faces, words or familiar settings start getting damaged from the first stage of dementia. Think about it. Remember the times when you bet you knew a certain word or the name of an actor but couldn’t find it in your memory? How frustrating was that? In the case of dementia, this is an everyday thing with almost every memory. The worst part, it’s not the actors they are not recognizing it’s the people that they have grown old around and places they have been heir whole life. This increasing confusion and inability to remember things can agitate anyone. In those moments of agitation, an elder with dementia needs your support, reassurance, and redirection so they can calm down.
What Triggers the Agitation and How to Calm Down the Patient?
Sudden confusing states can cause agitation for the patients of dementia. Even when told about the place they have been brought to, the senior might not understand or forget about it in minutes and get inquisitive again. Not getting satisfactory answers makes them more agitated. What triggers the agitation differs from person to person. For some, it’s a sudden change in the surroundings or meeting new people. Sometimes it’s the change in daily routines or improper medication, dehydration, or any kind of physical discomfort. This agitation can also be caused by the sudden confrontation with too many people. The inability to recognize faces and remember names causes confusion and leads to agitation.
Tips to Calm Down the Senior
Proper care of a senior with dementia requires monitoring their daily activities and planning their day accordingly. This enables you to prevent any trigger situations and take the senior through the day without any episodes of agitation.
- Create a calm environment: Facing loud conversations and a crowd of people triggers confusion and agitation. To prevent this, the surroundings around a senior with dementia should be calm and comfortable.
- Monitor daily activities and caregiving: Proper care should be taken of the senior’s everyday routine. Every day the senior must be given their medications on time. Make sure the caregiving staff is taking care of the feeding times and enough water is being drunk by the senior to keep them hydrated and calm. Adequate sleep is a must for a person suffering from dementia, so make sure you keep the environment calm enough for the person to sleep peacefully.
- Prevent surprising events and change in routine and surroundings: Try keeping the everyday routine of the senior as similar as possible. Try avoiding sudden relocation of the patient to new places or surroundings. If the symptoms of dementia are increasing rapidly, it might be time to hire a dementia caregiving This must be done in the early stages so that the senior has time to get familiar with their caregiving assistant.
Dementia alters the behavior of the seniors suffering from it. Loved ones often get confused by the onset of a gradually increasing dementia. If you’re unable to provide proper care for your elder loved one, contact us at Harmony Caregiving for dementia caregiving services and we’ll help your loved one cope with life much easier.