This Philadelphia Inquirer article is a report on an Alzheimer’s caregiver conference in Valley Forge. The keynote speaker was Tam Cummings, a gerontologist from Texas. Ms. Cummings and other speakers made several points:
* “Cummings urged family members to ask their doctors more questions — as many questions as they might ask if the diagnosis were cancer. Knowing more, she said, may help them understand and cope with the memory lapses, confusion, delusions, falls, depression, and stubbornness that often accompany dementia.”
* “A recurring theme: People with dementia have brain damage that limits what they can do and how they can think. It’s those around them who have to change. … If people with dementia are being obstinate or aggressive, it’s up to caregivers to try to figure out whether there is an explanation that their loved one can no longer communicate: Are they in pain? Are they afraid? Were the instructions too complicated? Have perceptual changes made the environment look dangerous to them?”
* “Cummings told the crowd that ‘your loved one’s reality is your reality.'”
This short article is worth reading. Here’s a link to it:
Dementia caregivers: Learning to live in your loved one’s reality
Updated: April 26, 2017 — 3:01 am EDT
by Stacey Burling, Staff Writer
Philadelphia Inquirer
Robin