Table of contents:
- How to communicate when caring for a person with dementia?
- 1. Take care of your own mood
- 2. Focus on you
- 3. Speak clearly
- 4. Ask simple questions that are easy to answer
- 5. Listen with your ears, eyes, and heart
Caring for dementia is not easy. They often have difficulty remembering and do not communicate well with other people. Dementia can even cause changes in a person's mood and can change a person's personality and behavior. Someone caring for a person with dementia may feel tired and hopeless and that may include you.
How to communicate when caring for a person with dementia?
One of the things that may make you feel tired is difficulty communicating with someone who has dementia. You should know that not only are you depressed, but those with dementia feel that no one else can understand them.
Improving your communication skills will help you improve the quality of your relationships with those you love. Good communication skills with someone with dementia will also make it easier for you to deal with behaviors that you sometimes find difficult to understand when you are caring for a dementia person.
How do you communicate with those of you who are caring for dementia? Check out the following five tips.
1. Take care of your own mood
Did you know that your attitude and body language communicate your feelings and thoughts more powerfully than words? If you want to communicate with someone who has dementia, make sure you are in a good and positive mood, speak in a pleasant but respectful manner.
Use facial expressions, tone of voice, and physical touch to help convey what you want to talk about and show him your affection. This way, you can easily treat someone with dementia.
Remember, you can't control other people's moods. However, you can identify your own mood so that it is always positive.
2. Focus on you
If you want to communicate with someone who has dementia, limit the distraction and noise around the two of you, such as, turn off the radio or TV, close the blinds or close the door, you can also move to a quieter room.
Before speaking, make sure you pay attention to him, call his name, "introduce" yourself by name and state what your relationship is with him. Use nonverbal cues and touches to help keep him focused. If he's seated, you should level his height with slouching or squatting and maintaining eye contact.
3. Speak clearly
When you are caring for a person with dementia, use simple words and sentences. Speak slowly, clearly, and in a reassuring tone. Don't raise your voice higher or louder, you must lower your voice.
If your parents still didn't understand or didn't understand the first time you spoke, use the same words to repeat your "message" or question. If he still doesn't understand, wait a few minutes and repeat what you talked about or asked. Use names of people and places instead of pronouns (him, her, them) or abbreviations.
4. Ask simple questions that are easy to answer
Ask one question at a time, with yes or no answer if possible. For example, "Are you hungry or not?" instead, "Mom want to eat when?".
Don't ask questions that are difficult for them to answer or jump right into a lot of questions that confuse them.
When asked for his opinion, give a clear choice such as, "Do you want to wear a white or blue shirt?" Better yet, indicate the options, and make cues as well to help clarify your question and get a response.
5. Listen with your ears, eyes, and heart
Be patient to wait for answers from those with dementia. They may be "struggling" to provide answers. If you see that he wants to give you an answer, help answer him by suggesting a word. However, be careful not to press him to answer right away.
Pay attention to cues such as facial expressions and body language of your loved one, and respond accordingly. Always try to understand them with the meaning and feeling when they say a word. When you can communicate, caring for a dementia person will become easier.
