Communicating With a Loved One Who Has Dementia

In an article entitled "8 Principles for Communicating With People With Dementia" by Andrew Budsonand featured on Psychology Today, he provides some excellent advice on how we can communicate with a loved one who has dementia. Some of those principles include:

• Keeping in mind that truth is relative. For someone with dementia, what feels real to them is going to be different than what feels real to you. Understanding that can help you to:

• Remain calm. A person with memory loss can ask repeated questions, or be unable to perform tasks that they were once able to do easily (such as work the remote control or the telephone.) Budson reminds us that "those with dementia will often absorb our moods by unconsciously perceiving our body language and tone of voice; thus we may inadvertently cause agitation if we become irritated."

• Dementia is a team sport. Budson recommends involving family and friends when caring for a loved one with dementia.

There are 5 more principles listed in Budson's article and they are

all

worth reading. To access the full article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/managing-your-memory/201811/8-principles-communicating-people-dementia To visit Andrew Budson's website which features the books he has written on Alzheimer's Disease and related disorders: https://www.andrewbudsonmd.com/ Like this post? Consider subscribing! Photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@lennonzf