THEIR WAY - No "New Learning" Required
Doing Things the Way a Person Living with Dementia has Always Done Things
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Care partners and healthcare providers can save time and decrease difficult behaviors by:
- establishing THEIR WAY during the initial assessment and
- using strategies and techniques that improve function and
independence during activities of daily living (ADL).
New learning is difficult for people living with brain failure because the disease or injury damages parts of the brain responsible for encoding new memories and processing complex information.
To make life easier for the care partner and for the person living with brain failure, choose to perform activities of daily living the way he/she has always done them.
For example, when it is time to bathe, does he/she prefer a bath or shower? What part of the body does he/she wash first? Does he/she use a washcloth or just soap and water? Does he/she prefer hot water or cold? Once you have determined his/her preferences, make it so. Rather than trying to do things your way, do it THEIR WAY and allow them the opportunity to do as much for themselves as possible.
Doing things THEIR WAY taps into familiar routines, life-long habits, long-term memories that still exist, and by-passes the part of the brain (the hypocampus) that is responsible for new learning.
If you must teach a new skill"
- teach through repetition rather than recalling new facts.
- utilize "errorless learning" with cues/prompts to preventerrors.
- create visual cues, bright objects, sticky notes, or signs.
- eliminate distractions; keep the environment quiet.
- choose a time when he/she is alert.
- leverage existing knowledge; connect to what he/she knows.
- if he/she becomes stress, back off & try again later.