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Therapists providing home visits in Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire & Taunton
Individual, individual, individual! We cannot emphasise the importance of individualised care for people living with a diagnosis of dementia. Therapists are expert at assessing the individual and providing a personalised approach to enhance the person’s quality of life and wellbeing, helping them achieve their goals and engage in meaningful activity. Here are how different therapists can help people who live with dementia: Alzheimer Scotland.
Every type of dementia stops a person’s brain cells (neurones) working properly in areas which affect their ability to remember, think and speak. Neurones are required to process the information (for example sight, touch, sound) we receive from the outside world and inside our bodies to make sense of who and where we are. Dementia involves impairment to this processing of information. This can lead to confusion, agitation, anxiety and withdrawal due to difficulty interpreting surroundings. Daily interactions and activities can become harder to understand, more stressful and difficult to cope with for someone with a sensory processing dysfunction.
Dementia UK is an excellent resource for finding out about dementia.
Many people who live with dementia require support to carry out their daily activities. Care-givers may not be trained in how to assess for sensory processing problems, or know how to tailor their approach to the individual; adapting their communication, changing the fabric of hoist slings or bed sheets, adjusting lighting etc. Carers are often working to a tight timeline with specific tasks to complete at certain times of the day or night. However, this may not map well onto the day and night of someone living with dementia, who may experience sun-downing or be very drowsy in the afternoon. Some care-givers can become frustrated with what they perceive to be a lack of compliance with the support they are giving, or they feel the person is being difficult, or not engaging.
Therapists find approaches which are individualised to the person and help them feel calm and not distressed. This can improve their quality of life, and in turn can assist care givers with manual handling, equipment management and other aspects of care. Our expert Occupational Therapist and physiotherapists use specialised skills drawn from sensory integration theory for dementia management, along with person-centred care to help find the best approach for each person. This approach is then documented, communicated and practiced with care-givers to help improve all interactions between the person living with dementia and those supporting them.
Recent research findings consistently report positive outcomes of sensory integration including improved cognitive function, emotional wellbeing, and enhanced quality of life for older people. Our team embrace this theory and work to support people as individuals; giving extra time, patience and understanding to help them live better with dementia.
It is important for people living with dementia to remain active and able to enjoy movement and daily activities. The way for people to stay active who have cognitive impairment, and for those who do not, is to move. It’s so important to have the opportunity to continue moving joints, working muscles, challenging balance systems. The ethos of ‘use it or lose it’ is fundamental. Movement makes us feel good, enables us to be independent and do activities we enjoy.
As we age we are at greater risk of falls but for someone living with dementia the risks are higher. As we know that exercise helps reduce the risk of falls, it is clear that exercise should be a key component of the daily life of someone who has dementia.
However, many studies showing the benefits of exercise exclude participants with cognitive impairment. There is a bias in society to exclude people living with dementia to be active and to exercise. In addition, hospitals and care settings record the number of falls and staff tend to be risk-avoidant. Often, we see people who have not been encouraged to get up and move around due to the risk that they may fall and sustain an injury. But this fear of falling becomes a downward spiral of inactivity and fear. So the person very quickly becomes deconditioned and then struggles to stand or walk safely.
Our therapists are passionate about including exercise into the daily life of people who have dementia. It may not be possible for them to remember the exercises or to do them by themselves, but if family and care-givers can support them then they are giving that person the chance to stay mobile, active and independent for longer.
Examples of simple exercises for people living with dementia can be found here.