Dear Caregivers,
Raise your hand if you have ever had a bad day and just wanted to scream and bang your fists into something. I am betting that most of us reading this are raising their hands.
It is important as caregivers to understand that older adults with dementia are experiencing their own realities. In order to appease a person who has agitation and anxiety, caregivers need to tap into this reality and embrace it.
Older adults with dementia will likely experience agitation and aggression at different points in their disease process. These behaviors are triggered by many factors including a change in environment, an illness or simply a bad day.
Below are some tips on how to prevent or reduce agitation:
- Create a calm environment. Remove stressors.
- Avoid environmental triggers. Noise, glare and background distraction (such as television) can act as triggers.
- Monitor personal comfort. Are they warm, cold, ill? Do they have to go to the bathroom, are they hungry or thirsty?
- Simplify tasks and routines.
- Provide an opportunity for exercise. Gardening, walking, chair exercises are all ways to get some exercise and doing it outdoors when weather permits is even better!