{"id":264,"date":"2024-11-02T01:42:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T01:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/?p=264"},"modified":"2024-11-19T03:35:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T03:35:52","slug":"people-with-dementia-have-abilities-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/?p=264","title":{"rendered":"People with dementia have abilities too!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hi all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have had a few losses and a few new additions to our A.W.G. family and we honor those we have served and look forward to those we get to start loving!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life seems to always be moving a bit fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I have been working on being present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently read an article once again by Judy Cornish about really how to be present while caring for someone with dementia. 3 ideas are presented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is about a 10 minute read. I hope you learn from it as much as I did. She also lists a few great book resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feel free to share any thoughts, comments, or experiences you may have. We all learn or relate! Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>THE DAWN METHOD
Let\u2019s Talk About ABILITIES and Dementia<\/em><\/strong>
What can people with dementia do?When we begin walking the dementia path\u2014whether personally or as someone\u2019s companion\u2014understanding what we\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0do when experiencing dementia is more important than anything else. My single purpose in creating DAWN was to share what my clients taught me: the skills we keep in dementia.Remember: dementia is the condition of progressive cognitive impairment, not a condition of complete cognitive impairment. When we engage with people experiencing dementia only on the level of what they cannot do, we disable them even more\u2014just as with anyone in any situation. We all benefit when we focus on each other\u2019s abilities rather than disabilities.
What can a person with dementia do?<\/strong><\/em>
There are lots of blogs and articles about the activities that someone can still enjoy when they\u2019re experiencing Alzheimer\u2019s or dementia. We enjoy activities when we have the skills to succeed at them. If we understand the skills we keep in dementia, we\u2019ll find even more enjoyable activities. But more importantly, we can personalize them.So these are the cognitive skills we do not lose to dementia, the ones that we get better at using because we\u2019re losing the other skills we previously relied on. These become our strengths. They not only let us enjoy our lives, but thrive\u2014if our companions know what they are.
The strengths of dementia<\/em><\/strong>
1\u2014Our intuitive thought processes<\/strong>
Medical science tells us that people with Alzheimer\u2019s or dementia are losing executive thought functions. That might be a helpful diagnosis for doctors, but it doesn\u2019t help me understand how to enjoy spending time with someone who\u2019s experiencing dementia. In layman terms, that means we lose the secondary set of thinking skills that enable us to make sense of information and get things done (called\u00a0rational thinking<\/em>: you can read more about this in Iain McGilchrist\u2019s book\u00a0The Master and His Emissary<\/em>). In specific words, we lose the ability to see cause and effect (if I do this, that will happen), to prioritize actions or ideas (this is more important than\u00a0that<\/em>), to follow steps in a sequence (follow instructions), and to understand explanations (why<\/em>\u00a0I should or shouldn\u2019t do something). But we never lose our primary thinking skills: our intuitive thought processes.In short, our intuitive thinking skills enable us to\u00a0enjoy<\/em>\u00a0life, not to understand things. Intuitive thinking equips us to enjoy the present, but not to plan or put into action something to make it enjoyable. Intuitive thinking provides us with the ability to enjoy companionship, but not the ability to initiate conversations or remember what we used to do together. Intuitive thinking enables us to read our companions\u2019 body language and expressions and tone in an instant, but not to understand the words we\u2019re hearing them say.Intuitive thinking lets us receive and enjoy sensory stimulation\u2014everything we can see, hear, taste, smell and touch\u2014but not to find and get what appeals to us. When our caregivers realize what we\u2019re able to do, they can take over filling our lives with what\u2019s beautiful and fun for us, and the result is companionship and mutual enjoyment of the present. (In caregiver terms, that\u2019s respite; for PLWDs, that\u2019s wellbeing.)
2\u2014Our experiential selves<\/strong>
Yes, people with dementia are losing memory, but they are not losing the ability to experience the present. We have both remembering selves and experiential selves, (you can read more about this in Daniel Kahneman\u2019s book\u00a0Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/em>).When I am with someone who\u2019s experiencing dementia or Alzheimer\u2019s and I stay fully present and enjoy the moment with them (this is called being\u00a0mindful<\/em>), we both have a wonderful time. They feel valued, accepted and satisfied\u2014and so do I. It doesn\u2019t matter that they won\u2019t be able to recall what we did a day, an hour, or even a minute later. I can, and I can tell them about it as often as I like. What matters is that we had fun and the enjoyment of having fun together raised both our moods.Because I understand that dementia takes away our ability to access information from the past, I don\u2019t expect my companions to know any of it. My accurate expectations free us both. If they need to know who someone is or what their relationship is, I tell them\u2014respectfully and without concern. And because I understand that dementia leaves us fully present, in the present, I focus on companionship and finding what makes my companion\u2019s heart sing. I make sure that their experiential selves are given lots of positive stimulation, and I don\u2019t expect them to be able to recall it or explain it later.
3\u2014The tools of mindlessness<\/strong>
We\u2019ve all heard about the value of mindfulness, but don\u2019t make the mistake of thinking that mindfulness is good therefore mindlessness must be bad (you might read Ellen Langer\u2019s book\u00a0Mindfulness<\/em>\u00a0for more on this). Mindlessness provides us with two very helpful tools\u2014whether we\u2019re experiencing dementia or not. Muscle memory and automatic thinking scripts let us follow the steps of a task or go through the motions of getting something done without using rational thinking or memory. That makes mindlessness an invaluable asset to people who’re losing both those skills. These two tools let someone who\u2019s losing rational thinking and memory skills continue to succeed at tasks like getting dressed or eating with utensils or finding the bathroom in the night and getting back into bed. Mindlessness keeps us functioning at a higher level for longer.However, mindlessness tools get broken if we interrupt the person or quiz them or move them to a new home. These tools are fragile and yet the best way to keep someone functioning at the highest possible level when they\u2019re losing rational thinking and memory skills.When we are caring for people with dementia, our focus should be on what they can do, not on what they cannot do. Putting our focus on the strengths in dementia enhances companionship and lowers stress for all. And, it\u2019s the least we can do.
Judy Cornish<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Hi all! We have had a few losses and a few new additions to our A.W.G. family and we honor those we have served and look forward to those we get to start loving! Life seems to always be moving a bit fast. So I have been working on being present. I recently read an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9,7,5,11,10,8],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senior-in-home-health-care","tag-aging","tag-caregiver","tag-dementia","tag-elderly","tag-in-home-healthcare","tag-seniors"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions\/265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agewithgracecare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}