Caring for someone with dementia can be challenging. You’ll have to understand the nature of their condition, symptoms, and limitations that may affect their normal functioning. Aside from that, you might need to consider adjustments to effectively cater to their needs. But, it’s noteworthy to mention that people with dementia can still function well. There’s only a possibility of episodes occurring wherein the symptoms of their condition could be apparent.
While this may seem an arduous task for some people, many alternatives could help you manage it. For instance, you could seek professional help from facilities like Home Care South West and other similar centers in your area that offer dementia care services. Alternatively, you can also hire caregivers to assist your loved one with dementia in the comforts of their own homes.
Care Tips For A Person With Dementia
If you’re in charge of looking after a person with dementia, you might find it challenging to provide for their needs. You’d have to keep an eye on their health and safety to ensure that they’re getting the appropriate care.
To help you care for them better, here’s a list of simple yet efficient ways to effectively care for someone struggling with dementia:
- Encourage Them To Exercise Regularly
One of the fastest and easiest ways to help someone maintain a healthy, fit body despite struggling with a neurological disorder is to engage in physical activities. Although you might consider this aspect trivial compared to other things, encouraging your loved one to exercise regularly is essential in keeping their bodies in good condition and helps in stimulating their minds.
Engaging in regular exercises and doing workout routines could help make people with dementia feel better. In addition, it may also help keep their muscles, joints, and heart in good shape. Likewise, exercise may promote good heart health, bolster bone density, and improve proper blood circulation.
Lastly, exercise could help increase dopamine production in the brain. These are the hormones associated with feelings of pleasure and the reward system. In such aspects, physical activities could slow down, if not prevent, the occurrence of the symptoms of dementia.
- Boost Their Nutritional Intake
Aside from encouraging your loved one to engage in physical activities regularly, another vital aspect you need to consider is their nutritional intake.
For starters, it’s essential for people suffering from any health condition and disorder to get sufficient nutrients to keep their bodies in tip-top shape. It’s also crucial to monitor their eating patterns to ensure that they get enough vitamins and minerals for a robust body. Additionally, it’s vital to prioritize the nutrition of people with dementia since it may lead to malnutrition and weight loss as it progresses.
Having a well-balanced diet could help prevent the risks of oxidative stress and inflammation, which underlie Alzheimer’s and dementia. That said, keeping their nutrition in check can help them maintain good health and reduce the risk factors that may trigger their condition.
- Consider Care Programs
If you feel like the care that you provide isn’t enough, then it’s high time to seek the help of professionals. Mainly, you can consider signing them up in care programs to efficiently improve your loved one’s condition.
In some cases, people suffering from dementia and other cognitive dysfunctions are encouraged to sign up in care programs and services that’d benefit them in many ways. These people could provide food, personalized services, and activities that’d help stimulate their mental capacities. Not to mention the additional assistance they’d give, signing them up in care programs is a must-consider at this stage.
If you have second thoughts about it, know that the main facilitators in such projects are usually caregivers, medical practitioners, and health workers with vast knowledge about proper dementia care. You can also learn a thing or two from them on how to effectively care for someone with dementia.
- Hire In-Home Caregivers
As mentioned earlier, signing up for your loved ones in care programs could help them. But that isn’t the only option you have. You can also consider hiring in-home care services for someone with dementia.
Hiring certain service providers, physicians, and registered caregivers would be a great option to ensure that your loved one gets the appropriate care they deserve. Many facilities and centers also offer in-home care services to people struggling with various cognitive dysfunctions. In this way, professionals could bring quality medical services to patients in the safety of their homes. They’d also help formulate the right treatment option for the patient suitable for their needs and overall health condition.
- Seek The Help Of Living Facilities
You can hire assisted living facilities, centers, and hospices to provide better services for your loved one. Aside from relieving some burden on your shoulder, this option could also help prevent incidents and mistakes that may harm the patient or trigger their condition.
Final Thoughts
It isn’t easy dealing with dementia. You’ll need to consider many factors, not to mention the risks that may harm the patient.
In such aspects, it’s best to enrich your knowledge about how to properly care for someone with such neurological disease. You can do that by browsing through reliable online health resources, seeking professional help, and hiring in-home care services. You can also consider some of the things mentioned above to obtain better results.
Through these options, you can effectively help someone cope with dementia and improve their quality of life.
