Share This Page

Support & Insight for the Autumn of Life

Communicating with Dad & Dementia

Grandpa

CARE TIPS & BOOKS:


Good communication is critical when families and friends get together. Communicating may be difficult between people with memory-loss and their loved ones. Check out these 5 helpful communication tips and books.


The following tips can help make communications with those experiencing memory loss meaningful:

  1. Center yourself. As soon as you start to get upset or frustrated, stop and concentrate on taking deep, slow breaths while focusing on something that makes you feel calm and collected.
  2. Use empathy. Using empathy to connect includes focusing on the experience of your loved one with memory loss. It is important to connect with their feelings, rather than the context of their words.
  3. Enter their world. Unless your loved one is in the very early stage of memory loss and wants to be reminded of a date, time or other reality based topic, join their journey rather than force reality on them.
  4. Ask open questions. Use open-ended questions to redirect the conversation and to show that you’re interested in exploring what is important to them. For example, if your loved one is insisting on visiting their deceased mother, rather than reminding them that she passed away, ask her to tell you about her mother and listen with empathy as she expresses her feelings.
  5. Try asking the extreme. Asking the extreme means that you ask the person to tell you the best or worst thing about what they are expressing.

For more insights and and tips, browse these recommended books on communications for dementia caregivers:

  1. Learning to Speak Alzheimer’s
  2. Connecting the Dots
  3. Talking to Alzheimer’s
  4. You Say Goodbye and We Say Hello
  5. Creating Moments of Joy

Email me when people comment
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Edited by:
B. Berger

B. Berger

This site was inspired by my Mom’s autoimmune dementia.

It is a place where we separate out the wheat from the chaffe, the important articles & videos from each week’s river of news. With a new post on Alzheimer’s or dementia appearing on the internet every 7 minutes, the site’s focus on the best information has been a help to many over the past 15 years. Thanks to our many subscribers for your supportive feedback.

The site is dedicated to all those preserving the dignity of the community of people living with dementia.

Peter Berger, Editor

Share this page To

Related:

A Doctor doing a Medical Examination on an Elderly Man at Home
Diagnosis

Alzheimer’s: Do I Want to Know?

SURVEY:

Learn how most Americans want a clear diagnosis of illnesses like dementia. A survey found this true even for incurable dementias, such as Alzheimer’s. Find out the reasons they want to know exactly where their health stands.

Read More »
Share to Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

This site was inspired by my Mom’s autoimmune dementia.

It is a place where we separate out the wheat from the chaffe, the important articles & videos from each week’s river of news. With a new post on Alzheimer’s or dementia appearing on the internet every 7 minutes, the site’s focus on the best information has been a help to many over the past 15 years. Thanks to our many subscribers for your supportive feedback.

The site is dedicated to all those preserving the dignity of the community of people living with dementia.

Peter Berger, Editor

Visit Alzheimer's Weekly On

0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x
News, Treatments, Care Tips

Subscribe To The Alzheimer's & Dementia Weekly Newsletter

videos & articles on Research & Prevention
News to Get at the Truth

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter