DEALing with daily problems

Often a carer can feel as much a helpless victim of the disease as the sufferer. It is not possible to eliminate difficult or challenging behaviours when they are related directly to brain damage. There are no simple solutions but it is important for a carer to develop a series of strategies to cope with the challenges of daily organisation. Treating difficult and challenging behaviours as problems to be solved rather than as situations to be endured can help to reduce carer stress levels. It is always important to deal with the situation, and not see the person as the problem. Below is a series of steps that can be applied to difficult behaviours and situations.

Define the problem

Explore the possibilities

Act to reduce problems
  This section contains practical hints for dealing with common problems.

Long term plan for stress reduction

DAILY ROUTINE

It can be a challenge to keep the person with Alzheimer's Disease active during the day. Yet it is important to try to keep the mind and body as active and involved as is possible. Keep in mind what abilities remain and focus on them. Also take into consideration the sorts of activities that were most enjoyable in the past.

Sometimes it is possible to involve your relative or friend in daily household chores like folding laundry or helping prepare meals. Gardening is a very healthy outdoors activity that many can enjoy. Such activities can help someone in the early stages of a dementing illness still feel that they have something to contribute.

Other activities which many could enjoy include

• EXERCISE
  Simple exercise routines can be enjoyable for both the carer and the person with early stage Alzheimer's Disease. Walking, dancing, and swimming are all beneficial.
• MUSIC
  Listening to music - music can have a soothing effect and all of us respond to favourite tunes.
• REMINISCING
  Remembering the past and looking at photograph albums can bring back pleasant memories. Most Alzheimer sufferers retain memories of the past long after short term memory loss. Creating a scrapbook together while long-term memory is still intact can be therapeutic. This can be used as something to look at and talk about in quiet times. It will serve also to remind family and carers of the person that used to be, prior to the disease. If the person eventually needs to be placed in care, such a scrapbook can also be shown to staff to provide them with a fuller picture of the person now in their care.