Helping at Home: 13 Tips for Caring for Someone with Dementia

Dementia is a term used to describe a wide variety of symptoms that affects a person’s memory, thinking, behavior and the ability to perform everyday tasks. Forty-seven million people are living with this chronic illness worldwide, and while it can be frustrating, it's important to provide a safe environment, making them happy and comfortable. There are several ways to show loved ones, who are suffering with dementia symptoms, that they are not a burden to caregivers and that they know what is best for them.

This starts right in their home as sufferers are encouraged to continue living at home for their own comfort and familiarity, at least until their symptoms would advance. This means family members need to step up to help their loved ones complete day to day tasks while keeping them safe and secure. The goal is to keep their loved ones happy, calm and comfortable.

These are several helpful tips and ways to help dementia patients cope with their progressing symptoms:

• Learn to be a more effective communicator. Do not be down on yourself because it is hard to relate to your loved one. Take some time to learn new techniques to relate better to your family member. Speak calmly, slowly, distinctly and in a respectful tone. Eliminate background noise like the TV and radio. Be patient while waiting for a response, sometimes it takes your loved one longer to answer than in the past. Acknowledge if they are feeling sad or angry and then redirect their attention to a different activity, such as a game or television show. Also, dementia sufferers tend to maintain their social skills, so it's okay to use humor to get a laugh or even just a smile out of them.

• Place personal belongings throughout the home to remind loved ones of their family and past memories. Keep personal photos on display, especially from their childhood since they most often can recall childhood memories before recent memories. Use the photos to talk about their brothers, sisters, and parents. Also, try to encourage them to tell you stories about them growing up by asking about family trips, what they did during the summer time, what type of student they were, their first jobs or how they met their spouse.  Recalling these memories can raise their mood, making them more pleasant to be around.

• Mobility can be an issue so place a rug on a slippery wooden floor and make sure the edges are secure. Try to also keep clutter to a minimum. At night, close the curtains or blinds and consider eliminating mirrors in the house to avoid frightening or confusing a dementia patient.

• Avoid bold patterns. If there’s busy wallpaper in the house, consider taking it down and painting walls a more tranquil, calming color. Keep flooring simple and not shiny, as those with dementia can easily mistake a shiny floor as wet and be confused. Always keep rooms well-lit because dementia can impair eyesight.

• In the kitchen and bathroom, place signs on the outside of cupboards with the contents inside. It is best to use pictures on the signs rather than words because pictures are more memorable.

Read on for more helpful things you can do at home to make an Alzheimer's patient a little more comfortable.