Humanistic Care for the Patient with Alzheimer Dementia

If you care for a spouse or parent with the dementia known as Alzheimer disease (or Alzheimer's disease, or AD), you may forget that there is still a person in the body, if not the person you once knew. Habilitation helps you treat your loved one with Alzheimer's disease humanistically. This approach offers you effective communication with your loved one and allows his dignity to remain intact.

Alzheimer's Disease

• Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible progressive disease of the brain that over time kills brain cells. The course of the disease is different in each person depending on which parts of her brain are affected. Because of the slow destruction of her brain, your loved one looses her memory and thinking skills. Difficult behaviors arise, and eventually she cannot care for herself. She may not be able to speak or understand what is said. Sometimes she is not a likable person. But she is still a person.

Habilitation Therapy

• It may sound new, but habilitation therapy has been around for 30 years, changing the lives of many caregivers and those they care for. Joanne Koenig Coste first developed this approach to giving care. Habilitation therapy focuses on the strengths that a person with Alzheimer's disease or other related dementias still has at the moment, and not on the skills that he lost. Habilitation responds to emotions. Alzheimer's disease eventually robs a person of his physical and mental capabilities, but emotion never disappear. The person with Alzheimer's disease may soon forget what you say, but he will never forget how you make him feel.

Communication

• Your actions, posture, facial expressions and the tone of your voice communicate more to the AD patient than words. You, as the caregiver, set the tone. If you are positive and upbeat, your loved one with Alzheimer's disease feels the same way unless something is bothering him. If he is agitated and makes no sense, listen to what he is saying and try to understand the emotion behind the words. He often needs reassurance that he is safe and that you will take care of him.

Focus on Abilities

• Each person with Alzheimer's disease has different current abilities. You know your loved one best. Think about favorites she had in the past. Find some simple part of them she can do. A man may be unable to work on cars any longer, but he can sort nuts and bolts. A woman may no longer wash clothes, but put some unfolded towels or some unmatched socks next to her and she will instinctively begin folding and matching. You give each person value and purpose by doing this. The point is to focus on what he can do without reminding him of what he cannot do.

Dignity

• As Alzheimer's disease progresses, your loved one loses her ability to think logically. It makes no sense trying to reason with her. Enter her reality so her dignity remains intact. If she asks an illogical question like where is her mother, who has been dead for 20 years, do not tell her that her mother is dead. Instead, say, "She is not here now." You can talk about fun things they did together. You validate her concern about her mother while leaving her dignity undamaged.