Tips to Manage Anxiety Prompted by a Parent’s Advancing Dementia

Activities directors and other healthcare professionals here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professionals.


Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be


Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care  professionals to get an easyceu or two


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The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition]

Parenting Resources Suite101

1. Ask for regular updates from nurses and carers about a parent’s declining health. Digest any changes in behavior, speech, or ability, and modify expectations; help them feel good about themselves.
2. Keep feelings of guilt at bay. Guilt prevents a person from acknowledging the impact of dementia on the sufferer and accepting the new emerging person.
3. Visit when you can for their sake. Dementia suffers may be able to recall events less with time, but they continue to respond to human contact and warm touch.
4. Visit when you can for your sake to see the deterioration first hand. Acknowledge and accept that their ability to manage even simple tasks is declining, and that their mind, body, and language skills are gradually deteriorating.
5. Ask them to talk about their childhood. Listen without judging or correcting facts. Good memories bring moments of happiness for both elderly parent and adult child.
6. Invite them to engage in the activity of the day, eg. Watch the Australian Tennis Open on the tv together; listen to orchestral music or sing along with the ‘golden oldies’ on disk; share a meal; or punch a balloon to each other.
7. Live in the moment. Breath. Laugh. Relax. Take the opportunity to slow down to their pace. Encourage them to interact but be aware of when they are tiring.
8. Share your feelings with a family member, a friend, or a professional. A problem shared is a problem halved.

One of the best tips for managing your anxiety due to an elderly parent’s dementia is to acknowledge that you may be grieving the loss of your parent as you once knew them. Find ways to feel these feelings of stress, anxiety, depression or malaise mindfully to get through them, and to accept the condition no matter how difficult this is.


Read more at Suite101: 8 Tips for Coping with Elderly Parents and Advanced Dementia | Suite101.com http://karen-thomas.suite101.com/8-tips-for-coping-with-elderly-parents-and-advanced-dementia-a392307#ixzz1aVUGLm4M