Caring for dementia sufferers

By Julia Kirchner Jan 2, 2012, 3:06 GMT

Berlin - A pair of trousers is in the dishwasher and the kitchen counter has been wiped four times - a fairly standard turn of events when living with someone suffering from dementia. It is not easy and, if the person's language skills are seriously impaired, communication is difficult.

But there are a number of means by which family members can smooth the relationship.

Some countries rely on high technology. In Japan, for example, a robot modelled after a baby seal and covered with artificial fur is employed in nursing homes, where it is said to help otherwise withdrawn patients open up.

According to a study by the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, the seal robot gets patients to talk to each other more and to reflect on their condition. Many display positive expressions of emotion such as smiling when petting the robot.

It is generally very difficult to determine what things elicit happiness in dementia sufferers. 'The people affected are often unable to provide any insight,' remarked Philipp Stude, assistant medical director at the Bergmannsheil Neurological Clinic in the German city of Bochum.

Stude said that a patient's feelings of well-being are open to interpretation. Positive signs include making eye contact, having a peaceful mood and reacting when spoken to. In many dementia patients, well-being can be triggered by old hobbies, music, art or animals. 'Family members usually know what makes the patient happy,' Stude noted.

Many people with dementia become paranoid and are convinced that a strange person is in their room or that someone has stolen money from them. 'These patients need to feel they're being taken seriously,' advised Sabine Bartholomeyczik, chairwoman for epidemiology and nursing science at the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE).

Gudrun Piechotta-Henze, a nursing scientist at the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, agreed. Family members should address such fears and not simply dismiss them. If a dementia patient says something like, 'Someone has stolen from me,' she said, an appropriate response might be, 'That must be upsetting to you.'

Caring for dementia sufferers is especially difficult if they have lost the ability to express themselves verbally. Family members can at least partially offset the absence of speech with other sensory stimuli.

'It's important to create 'memory islands.' This can be done, for instance, by touching or with certain foods,' Piechotta-Henze pointed out.

She had good results, she said, with a project in which poems were recited that dementia patients had learned in school. 'Even those unable to express themselves verbally any more knew the poems by heart in the end,' she said.

It is also important not to speak with others about dementia patients in their presence.

'You should never say, 'He won't understand,'' warned Piechotta-Henze, who said that in her experience patients were very sensitive and still picked up on a lot of things at a non-verbal level. It is better, she said, to bend to the patient's eye level and to try to speak to him or her directly. 'This signals to the patient, 'I've got time for you,'' she said.