10 Tips On How To Be A Better Alzheimer’s Caregiver

Being an Alzheimer’s caregiver requires education, hard work, social skills and patients if they want to get along and successfully work with the Alzheimer’s patient. It is not easy, here are some tips to assist your work as a caregiver:

1. Don’t be in denial: It can be very hard to come to terms with a loved one being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or begins showing signs of dementia, denial will only harm your loved one because it delays diagnosis or treatment.
2. Don’t ask, “do you remember?” If they could remember, they likely wouldn’t have dementia. Repeating this question regarding a task or person could make them upset.
3. Be prepared to shift age-behavioral levels with the patient:  You may experience a time where the person begins acting at an age younger than their actual age. Connecting with them at their level, will reassure and make them less likely to get upset.
4. Putting something important in their hand may help connect with your person.
5.  Introduce someone with late-stage Alzheimer’s to children, pets, music or art to help engage with them: These four things have been shown to help people struggling with the late stages of the disease, even if they do not talk anymore.
6. Don’t try to argue with your person whether you’re right or wrong: It’s impossible to win an argument with someone suffering from dementia, it’s not worth the time or effort. Make sure not to contradict them either, or they’ll persist even more.
7. Don’t bring up topics your person has a problem with.
8. If you do bring up a topic that has apparently upset your person then quickly change the subject: If you accidentally said something wrong then quickly redirecting their attention to another topic, the more pleasant the topic, the better.
9. Don’t stop visiting even when the person begins to forget who you are: People with Alzheimer’s and dementia may not recognize who you are but they still have feelings. They will especially enjoy visitors even when they don’t know who the visitor exactly is.
10. Don’t forget about your health: Being an Alzheimer’s caregiver is not easy; make an effort not to neglect your health and needs. You’ll be able to help your person more if you’re healthy, to begin with.

Naturally, there are a lot more things an Alzheimer’s caregiver can do, but these few tips will allow you to give your person the best care while maintaining your own health and well-being

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