How To Talk To Someone With Vascular Dementia

Support Their Cultural And Spiritual Needs

Its good to be aware of the persons cultural and spiritual needs and make sure these are respected and supported. You can make use of any advance care plans or documents, friends and family input and your knowledge of the person. Its important to try and meet these needs as much as possible, they are just as important as medical care.

Ways To Communicate With A Person With Dementia

• Stand or sit where the person can see and hear you as clearly as possible usually this will be in front of them, and with your face well-lit. Try to be at eye-level with them, rather than standing over them.
• Be as close to the person as is comfortable for you both, so that you can clearly hear each other, and make eye contact as you would with anyone.
• Communicate clearly and calmly.

What Causes Vascular Dementia

Vascular dementia occurs when vessels that supply blood to the brain become blocked or narrowed. Strokes take place when the supply of blood carrying oxygen to the brain is suddenly cut off. However, not all people with stroke will develop vascular dementia.

Vascular dementia can occur over time as “silent” strokes pile up. Quite often, vascular dementia draws attention to itself only when the impact of so many strokes adds up to significant disability. Avoiding and controlling risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, and high cholesterol can help curb the risk of vascular dementia.

Catching the condition early also helps limit the impact and severity of vascular dementia. Early detection requires an awareness of risk factors and, more importantly, efforts to keep them under control. Anyone who suspects vascular dementia should talk with their doctor.

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Identify The Emotional State Of The Response

How is this person feeling? If they have been able to speak, what do the words convey? What does their tone of voice convey? What does their facial expression tell you? What does their body position tell you? What does their respiration rate tell you? Is there any indication that the person is in physical discomfort or pain?

Observing the above will help family members, friends and care staff to achieve better understanding in a conversation. In dementia care you need to listen with your eyes and your ears.

Can A Person Get Vascular Dementia After A Stroke

A person can develop vascular dementia following a stroke. Stroke can block an artery in the brain. There are other conditions that damage blood vessels that can deprive the brain of important oxygen and nutrients though. Research seems to suggest that about 10 percent of dementia sufferers are stroke dementia patients.

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Vascular Dementia Signs And Symptoms

Vascular dementia affects different people in different ways and the speed of the progression also varies from person to person. Some symptoms may be similar to those of other types of dementia and usually reflect increasing difficulty to perform everyday activities like eating, dressing, or shopping.

Behavioral and physical symptoms can come on dramatically or very gradually, although it appears that a prolonged period of TIAsthe mini-strokes discussed aboveleads to a gradual decline in memory, whereas a bigger stroke can produce profound symptoms immediately. Regardless of the rate of appearance, vascular dementia typically progresses in a stepwise fashion, where lapses in memory and reasoning abilities are followed by periods of stability, only to give way to further decline.

Do Not Try And Alter Undesirable Behavior

Lack of understanding may push one to try and change or stop any undesirable behavior from patients who have dementia. Keep in mind that it is almost impossible to teach new skills or even reason with the patient. Try instead to decrease frequency or intensity of the behavior. For instance, respond to emotion and not the changes in behavior. If a patient insists on always asking about a particular family member reassure them that he or she is safe and healthy as a way of keeping them calm and happy.

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Dont Shy Away From Tears Or Laughter

People with dementia often lead very emotional lives. Anxiety and grief may be quite near to the surface. Dont shy away from tears. Stay with the person and offer them natural support.

You may not be able to fix the cause of the anxiety or grief, but seeing this through with them and not being afraid will help them enormously. Never underestimate this. Likewise, having a belly laugh together over something silly is a great way of getting to know each other.

How Important Are The Stages Of Dementia

The stages of dementia are just a guide and there is nothing significant about the number three. Equally, dementia doesnt follow an exact or certain set of steps that happen in the same way for every person with dementia.

It can be difficult to tell when a persons dementia has progressed from one stage to another because:

• some symptoms may appear in a different order to the stages described in this factsheet, or not at all
• the stages may overlap the person may need help with some aspects of everyday life but manage other tasks and activities on their own
• some symptoms, particularly those linked to behaviours, may develop at one stage and then reduce or even disappear later on. Other symptoms, such as memory loss and problems with language and thinking, tend to stay and get worse with time.

It is natural to ask which stage a person is at or what might happen next. But it is more important to focus on the person in the present moment. This includes their needs and how they can live well, and how to help them with this.

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How Does Dementia Affect Communication

The effects of dementia on the brain can worsen a persons:

• Communication and cognition
• Visual perception
• Problem-solving skills

Signs of dementia begin when healthy neurons or nerve cells in the brain stop working with other brain cells and die, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. While losing neurons is more common with age, people with dementia experience a severe loss of neurons, which can contribute to personality changes, a decrease in communication skills, and losing emotional control.

Communication And Communication Difficulties

Language performance is both influenced by normal aging and by development of dementia . Dementia is defined as memory impairment with the impairment of at least one other cognitive function such as language or executive function . Cognitive and daily functioning decline are the primary symptoms of dementia . Difficulties related to communication are among the earliest symptoms of dementia . Loss of linguistic abilities is common symptom among people with dementia, who may precede other aspects of the cognitive decline . Language difficulties are a major problem for most patients with dementia, especially as the disease progresses and goes from moderate to severe stage . Early signs that communication of a person with dementia is affected are the difficulties of word finding, especially when naming people or objects. A person can replace the word with the wrong one or not find a substitute at all . As the disease progresses, it leads to forgetting names of family members, friends, confusion about family relationships, and often affected persons no longer recognize members of their family .

Training/instruction of communication skills related to the care of people with dementia significantly influences the communication of professional and family caregivers, their skills, abilities and knowledge, improves the quality of life and well-being of people with dementia and increases positive interaction in different care settings .

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Tips For A Healthy And Active Lifestyle For People With Dementia

Eating healthy and staying active is good for everyone and is especially important for people with Alzheimers and related dementias. As the disease progresses, finding ways for the person to eat healthy foods and stay active may be increasingly challenging. Here are some tips that may help:

• Consider different activities the person can do to stay active, such as household chores, cooking and baking, exercise, and gardening. Match the activity to what the person can do.
• Help get an activity started or join in to make the activity more fun. People with dementia may lack interest or initiative and can have trouble starting activities. But, if others do the planning, they may join in.
• Add music to exercises or activities if it helps motivate the person. Dance to the music if possible.
• Be realistic about how much activity can be done at one time. Several short mini-workouts may be best.
• Take a walk together each day. Exercise is good for caregivers, too!
• Buy a variety of healthy foods, but consider food that is easy to prepare, such as premade salads and single portions.
• Give the person choices about what to eat, for example, Would you like yogurt or cottage cheese?

Stage : Early Stage Moderate Vascular Dementia

This is also one of the most important vascular dementia stages that everyone should not look down but watch out carefully for good! This stage is the only one wherein the signs and symptoms are clear for the first time. This is because the condition has advanced to the 4th stage and is very clear and evident. People suffering from vascular dementia in this stage tend to stay away from their family and friends. They find it hard to frame sentences and maintain a conversation.

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This stage will last for 2-3 years before everything gets more serious if there is no treatment. The most effective way to treat this condition is to stimulate the individual who are suffering from this disorder to join a community workshop. At this place, he or she will be instructed to play games, which have effect on sharpening the motor and memory skills. In this stage, individual will be diagnosed with moderate vascular dementia.

This is actually also one out of the vascular dementia stages that a lot of people in the world have been diagnosed and have been trying to minimize the damages.

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How To Deal With Dementia Behavior Problems

• How to Deal with Dementia Behavior Problems: 19 Dos and Donts

Dementia is a disease that affects millions of people across the globe every year. It is often a highly misunderstood condition that is marred by numerous misconceptions, which make the condition difficult to understand and study.

You should know that dementia is not a name for an illness, rather it is a collective term that describes a broad range of symptoms that relate to declining of thinking, memory, and cognitive skills. These symptoms have deteriorating effects that usually affect how a patient acts and engages in the day-to-day activities.

In advanced dementia stages, affected persons may experience symptoms that bring out a decline in rational thought, intellect, social skills, memory, and normal emotional reactivity. It is something that can make them powerless when it comes to living normal, healthy lives.

Relatives, caregivers, spouses, siblings, children and anyone close to a person who has dementia need to know how to deal with behavioral problems that surface because of the illness. Examples of dementia problems may include aggressiveness, violence and oppositional behaviors. Find out some of the vital Do and Donts when dealing with a dementia patient.

Who Is At Risk For Vascular Dementia

Some risk factors for vascular dementia can be managed others, like age and gender, cannot. Among all factors, high blood pressure carries the greatest risk vascular dementia almost never occurs without it.

Likewise, a high risk of stroke goes hand in hand with risk for vascular dementia. One-quarter to one-third of strokes are thought to result in some degree of dementia. People who smoke, consume excessive amounts of alcohol, have diabetes, or heart disease also have a higher rate of the condition.

Vascular dementia most commonly occurs in people between the ages of 60 and 75. Men seem to be more vulnerable than women, and the condition affects African-Americans more often than other races. People whose age, sex, or race puts them at increased risk of vascular dementia have that much more reason to manage risk factors within their control.

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Think About How The Person May Be Feeling

Try to put yourself in their shoes or seat. What is their emotional state likely to be? Are they relaxed and happy or anxious and distressed? Are they calm or frightened? Are they likely to respond to humour or are they angry and frustrated? You may be aware of whats been happening to them prior to your conversation. If not, try to find out so you can think about your approach.

Be Open To A Range Of Possibilities

We often go into situations with set ideas of what we want to speak about or what we expect to hear and we try to switch the conversation quickly to the topic we have in mind. At the beginning of a communication, take your lead from the person with dementia. Dont try to switch topics too soon. In allowing the conversation to develop, give the person time to say what is on their mind. When the person says x they mean y .

Be aware that as word finding becomes more difficult for the person with dementia the content of speech becomes more limited. So, for example, a female name such as Julie may come to represent every female helper rather than referring to Julie in person. A reference to needing my mum may mean that the person is feeling scared and unattached rather than a literal question needing a literal answer about the whereabouts of the persons mother.

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Dont Forget About Your Own Needs

You cant care for someone else if youre not taking care of yourself. So dont ignore your own needs. Look after your health eat well, stay active and go to the doctor when you need to. Make sure you use all the support thats available to you. Have a list of jobs that you can give to other people when they offer to help, for example, like going to the supermarket or doing some washing.

If you care for someone, you are entitled to have your own carers assessment to make sure that your local council is supporting you, as well as your friend or family member. This could include providing respite care, where someone else comes and looks after your friend or family member to give you a break. Or there may be a day centre they can go to, so that you can have a bit of time to yourself. Ask your GP or contact your local council if you havent had a carers assessment.

Find out more about vascular dementia.

Pass Along A Positive Mood

Treat a phone call as your chance to brighten your parents day. When he becomes unable to recall his own experiences, use your calls as a chance to tell him what youve been up to the past week. Recall and retell a favorite memory from your childhood or your times together that you know are happy times for him, too.

Use your phone call to sing songs with your mom, or her favorite hymns, or tell her stories of things she did for you that enriched your life. Your goal should be to give her the experience of having your full attention, and to communicate your caring by recalling happy times for her that she cannot recall on her own.

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Do Not Shy Away From Asking For Help

No one may have all the answers especially when it comes to taking care of a person with dementia. Try doing research on how their behavior changes and what needs to be done to help them live their lives without too many complications. Hire help when it becomes too much as it also ensures that you do not become too frustrated or drained. When you have multiple family members who can help, ask everyone to pitch in and look after the patient so that you can get some personal space to breathe and re-energize when it is your time to look after the patient. When you feel like you can no longer look after your loved one at your own home, it may be time to consider assisted living. In such case, look into dementia care homes that can provide specially trained professionals.

Tips For Changes In Communication And Behavior For People With Dementia

Communication can be hard for people with Alzheimers and related dementias because they have trouble remembering things. They also can become agitated and anxious, even angry. In some forms of dementia, language abilities are affected such that people have trouble finding the right words or have difficulty speaking. You may feel frustrated or impatient, but it is important to understand that the disease is causing the change in communication skills. To help make communication easier, you can:

• Reassure the person. Speak calmly. Listen to his or her concerns and frustrations. Try to show that you understand if the person is angry or fearful.
• Allow the person to keep as much control in his or her life as possible.
• Respect the persons personal space.
• Build quiet times into the day, along with activities.
• Keep well-loved objects and photographs around the house to help the person feel more secure.
• Remind the person who you are if he or she doesnt remember, but try not to say, Dont you remember?
• Encourage a two-way conversation for as long as possible.
• Try distracting the person with an activity, such as a familiar book or photo album, if you are having trouble communicating with words.

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