Do's and don'ts for communicating with someone with dementia

Why this resource is helpful:

"If someone you care about has dementia, the challenges of breaking down your communication into simple ideas, concepts or directions can be frustrating. And it"s equally difficult for the person living with a rapidly diminishing ability to understand others and, in turn, be understood.

Dementia describes a decline in mental ability that"s severe enough to disrupt your daily activities. It is a progressive condition that causes changes to the brain that lead to increased forgetfulness and a decreasing ability to think, reason and problem solve. Alzheimer"s disease is the most common form of dementia, which also includes Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia, Parkinson"s disease, frontotemporal dementia and mixed dementia.

Learn more about the progression of dementia and Alzheimer"s disease and challenges of communicating with someone with the condition from Dr. Maureen Nash at Providence Elder Place in Portland, Oregon. Listen here.

Depending on the severity of their condition, someone with dementia may exhibit any or all of the following characteristics:

Difficulty finding the right words
Describing objects instead of naming them
Reverting to a first language
Easily losing their train of thought
Combining unrelated phrases or ideas in one thought
Relying heavily on gestures over speech
Speaking less often"

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