HELPFUL HINTS FOR CAREGIVERS

THREE HELPFUL HINTS FOR CAREGIVERS WANT TO COMMUNICATE WITH A LOVED ONE WITH DEMENTIA:
1.  Go to where your loved ones are in their minds. If they call you by a wrong name or get their facts wrong, go with it.  They are not trying to be difficult, that is their new world.  It does no good to correct them.  Simply move on to another topic. 
2.  Ask for help along the way from friends, pastors, neighbors; sometimes family members.  However, some family members complicate the situation and make things worse.  I know--I have heard many stories about this in my 200 book signings with caregivers.
3.   Concentrate on what you CAN DO with your loved one instead of what you can't do.  My mom and I could still take walks around the parking lot of her assisted living facility, could still ride together in my car to the drugstore or Dairy Queen;  but could not connect on what she had for lunch or where she went earlier in the day.  Her short-term memory loss precluded that.
11/14/17