Dementia: Some of the hints for Carers There are no simple answers to relieving the challenges faced by people with dementia - and their carers – but an easy-to-read guide entitled 10 Helpful Hints for Carers provides practical solutions to related everyday problems, such as how to cope with aggression and create relaxing environments. Subtitled “Practical solutions for carers living with people with dementia”, it is co-written by the Dementia Services Developments Carer’s Professor June Andrews and the Leeds-based Professor Allan House. Here are some hints to the hints that the 56-page book discusses in much greater detail: • Get rid of clutter. Try to put everything you use only occasionally behind a cupboard door. Only keep out on the surface things that you need every day. • Have more light. Increase the wattage of all the light bulbs in the house and get more fitments if possible. Clean the windows and cut bushes away to let more light in. • Sometimes have less light! Be flexible about the lighting conditions that are best for your loved one at night. If they are used to the dark, make the room dark, and vice versa. • Keep the noise down. Shutting doors and windows can help if there is competing noise. Only have the radio or TV on if someone is really listening to it. • Watch out for mirror (or window reflections after dark). People with dementia don’t immediately recognise their own face and could imagine that an intruder is starting back at the. • Create a hideaway or “den” (for) an afternoon snooze on the sofa, undisturbed by the rest of the household. • Touch is really important. Some families don’t touch much. Now is the time to learn bug hugs. • Pat the dog. Amazingly, petting an animal can reduce your blood pressure and caring for it can give all sorts of health benefits. • Exercise practised in a calm atmosphere with soothing music helps everyone to have lower stress levels. The book, priced £7.50, can be bought from the Dementia Center’s online shop (dementiashop.co.uk) or from Amazon. So far, 30,000 copies have been issued.
Posted on: Tue, 06 May 2014 09:06:40 +0000
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