Handling dementia patients

Relatives must learn to cope with the disease. As a daughter, son or partner, one often gets angry and cannot understand the patient's behavior. It is important to remember that the patient has at least partly lost control of his behavior, although it seems that the patient is simply being defiant or indifferent or has ill intentions. This is all the more difficult to understand because Alzheimer's patients often outwardly give the impression of being in good health. To enable those involved to retain their quality of life as much as possible, the right care is important in addition to suitable medication.

Understanding the inner needs of the person with dementia

When coping with the dementia sufferer, it is helpful to continually try to look at the world through the patient's eyes.

Imagine you are all alone in a small Chinese town, where you neither know the language nor can read anything. Everywhere you come across completely incomprehensible customs such as eating with chopsticks. And the worst thing is that you keep meeting people who talk to you intently as if they have known you for years and who expect you to know everything.

Patients are often perfectly aware of what they should actually be able to do. When they do not succeed, however, this creates anxiety and great frustration - with themselves and with the people around them making the demands.

Practical Advice

Very important for elderly people is a balanced diet including plenty of fluids plus regular exercise