November is Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month.  To help raise awareness and educate others about this disease and other dementias, share these 'Tips for a Good Visit'
with others you know.  Also, consider the MindStart Visiting Kit for finding ways to make connections during your visit to the person with dementia.

Individuals with dementia can have difficulty with recent memories and with communicating, making it harder to maintain relationships with others on their own. Often, their friends, neighbors, and extended family members do not know how to handle this, so stop visiting or calling. Offer these tips to decrease the fear and make the visit successful.

• Choose a quiet calm location
• Introduce yourself, as needed
• Keep focus on the person, using eye contact and patience
• Avoid correcting; instead offer reassurance and praise
• Avoid open-ended questions; instead use yes/no questions or questions where 2 choices are given
• Monitor body language and facial expressions of the person
• Enter their world. Talk about what they are thinking about at the time.
• Reminiscence is a wonderful tool. Talk about past interests or significant life events.
• Use adapted Alzheimer activities to form a connection and have fun together.