Four Tips You Can Use When Challenging Dementia Behaviors Appear

So often the behaviors that a senior with dementia exhibits are both confusing and frustrating. Your elderly family member isn’t trying to frustrate you, but you need to find ways to deal with those behaviors appropriately.

You’re Not Going to Be Able to Control the Behaviors

The first thing to understand is that your senior isn’t able to control these behaviors and you’re not going to be able to control them, either. The best way to get any sort of “control” over what’s happening is to really examine what’s causing these behaviors for your senior and deal with those triggers and instigating events in the best ways possible.

Find the Triggering Events

Accommodating your senior’s needs is going to result in fewer challenging behaviors with dementia. Your aging family member is almost always dealing with an unmet need. That might be that she’s hungry or that she’s tired or that she needs something else. Regardless, there’s a triggering situation that you can help her to resolve, if you can figure out what’s causing the situation. Run through a list of basic needs first and then assess what’s going on when these behaviors appear.

Remember to Hang Onto Compassion

The best tool to have in your kit when you’re dealing with challenging behaviors is your own compassion. This is not easy for you, of course, but it’s also difficult for your elderly family member. There’s no way that she would rather ask repetitive questions or wander away from her home if she had another way to resolve what’s happening for her. Try to keep that in mind while you cope.

Talk to Your Senior’s Doctor and Educate Yourself

Your senior’s doctor can be a huge source of help with these types of behaviors. There are quite a few triggers that seem to result in similar challenging behaviors in a great many people with dementia. Learning as much as you can about challenging behaviors can really help. Something else to consider is that bringing in elderly care providers is also helpful. They have a lot of experience helping family members with dementia and their caregivers, so they can help you, too.

Remember that dementia changes your senior’s ability to think and to understand what’s happening around her on a daily basis. She’s not in the same reality you’re in, so your interactions with each other can feel strange on both sides of that equation.