{"id":6944,"date":"2015-08-12T20:29:55","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T20:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/"},"modified":"2015-08-12T20:29:55","modified_gmt":"2015-08-12T20:29:55","slug":"dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/","title":{"rendered":"Caring for Mother at Home: Dealing with the Onset of Dementia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You may remember my sister Cindy from the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/caring-for-mother-remember-emotional-needs\/\">Caring for Mother at Home <\/a>blogs, but if<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> you don\u2019t, allow me to give you a brief summary. \u00a0My sister owned a very successful material handling company for years, but she gave it up to care for our parents in their later years. The timing was right for my sister and our parents certainly needed her. Along the way, Cindy gained much knowledge while being a caregiver for our parents, and I would like to share another insight of hers. Hopefully, these simple tips can help you as you care for your loved one. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em>The topic I wanted to discuss is your loved one and <a href=\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/services\/dementia-alzheimers-care\/\">dementia<\/a>. \u00a0I believe as a caregiver and family member this was one of the hardest aspects for me to handle.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Your loved one may not recognize you or other family members:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is extremely hard on me as the caregiver\/daughter to realize that at times my Dad did not know who I was. \u00a0It started as not being able to recall my name and at times progressed to not knowing who I was or who other family members were that came to visit.<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my father\u2019s case he would go in and out of reasoning. \u00a0There were long periods of times he was quite lucid and then would slip back into his \u2018world\u2019.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One weekend my sister came for a visit and he held her hand and told her how happy he was to see her. \u00a0On the next visit, a few weeks later, he did not know who she was but happened to regain some of his memory before she left which pleased her greatly.<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I once made the comment to a friend of his who came to see him that he may not recognize them. \u00a0Dad heard me and said, \u201cI\u2019m not crazy you know.\u201d I learned it is very important to not discuss issues such as these within a patient\u2019s hearing range. \u00a0You can never know what things will get processed quickly in their mind.<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Your patient\/loved one may say incredibly cruel things:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is important not to take these comments to heart. \u00a0Once when I was working on my Dad\u2019s nails he got very impatient with the time it took and said that I was slow and stupid. My father was a very loving man and supportive of me and I knew he didn\u2019t mean what he had said. \u00a0As a caregiver, it was vital that I learned to put aside things said to me in my father\u2019s moments of frustration. \u00a0As a veteran of the war, he certainly learned curse words and bad language but never spoke this way until he started to develop dementia, again, I had to realize that this was a part of his disease process and not directed toward me. <\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em> Your patient\/loved one may act or speak provocatively to you: \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The hardest thing to handle for me as a caregiver and daughter was when he talked in a provocative manner to me. My sister once commented to me that she knew this behavior really upset me and made it difficult for me to care for him. She recommended that I talk to other caregivers about their experiences with this. They reassured me that this is often a common behavior in older men. One caregiver said it was a daily occurrence with some of the elderly men she cared for in nursing homes. I learned to set limits and tell him to stop speaking to me that way and at times that is all it would take to change his behavior.<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em>Overall it is important to realize you are doing a great service for your patient\/loved one and to take pride in the care you provide. There were times on a very bad day I would feel stressed and Dad would look over at me and say, \u201cI love you and I don\u2019t know what I would do without you.\u201d That statement made it all worthwhile. \u00a0In closing, as you are learning to deal with the changes that dementia can bring, be patient with yourself, patient with your loved one, seek advice and answers to questions, and remember <a href=\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/family-centered-home-care-services\/\">you are not in this alone<\/a>.<\/em><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may remember my sister Cindy from the Caring for Mother at Home blogs, but if you don\u2019t, allow me <a href=\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/\" class=\"h5 more-link\">Learn More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":3612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[956,944],"tags":[987,943,1041,1053],"class_list":["post-6944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alzheimers-dementia","category-senior-health-wellness","tag-dementia","tag-family-caregiver","tag-practical-tips","tag-self-care"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Caring for Mother at Home: Dealing with the Onset of Dementia - Preferred Care at Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Caring for Mother at Home: Dealing with the Onset of Dementia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You may remember my sister Cindy from the Caring for Mother at Home blogs, but if you don\u2019t, allow me Learn More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Preferred Care at Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-12T20:29:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/dementia_caregiver_family.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1836\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laurie Salmons, RN, BSN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laurie Salmons, RN, BSN\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/\",\"name\":\"Caring for Mother at Home: Dealing with the Onset of Dementia - Preferred Care at Home\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-12T20:29:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-12T20:29:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/#\/schema\/person\/cdfef04c066f94ca4d89dc3ebfb3d27c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Caring for Mother at Home: Dealing with the Onset of Dementia\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/\",\"name\":\"Preferred Care at Home\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/#\/schema\/person\/cdfef04c066f94ca4d89dc3ebfb3d27c\",\"name\":\"Laurie Salmons, RN, BSN\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c3de0d99fffd33e3941d0f6dec47787f299436a33d297de574bb916ec606cd17?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c3de0d99fffd33e3941d0f6dec47787f299436a33d297de574bb916ec606cd17?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Laurie Salmons, RN, BSN\"},\"description\":\"Laurie has been a registered nurse for over 30 years with 20 of those years being spent in the home care industry. Her specialty is working with home care providers to improve the care delivery services of the elderly while in their homes. She has lectured on home care issues for the National Association of Home Care and Hospice and at regional and state conferences as well. Laurie co-authored a manual on Best Practices for the Home Care Patient. Laurie, who lives in Tennessee, also has personal experience in helping to obtain care services for her elderly mother and father in Virginia so she understands first-hand the importance of caring, supportive, and knowledgeable caregivers.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/author\/laurie-salmons\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Caring for Mother at Home: Dealing with the Onset of Dementia - Preferred Care at Home","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Caring for Mother at Home: Dealing with the Onset of Dementia","og_description":"You may remember my sister Cindy from the Caring for Mother at Home blogs, but if you don\u2019t, allow me Learn More","og_url":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/","og_site_name":"Preferred Care at Home","article_published_time":"2015-08-12T20:29:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1836,"height":1536,"url":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/dementia_caregiver_family.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Laurie Salmons, RN, BSN","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Laurie Salmons, RN, BSN","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/","url":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/","name":"Caring for Mother at Home: Dealing with the Onset of Dementia - Preferred Care at Home","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-08-12T20:29:55+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-12T20:29:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/#\/schema\/person\/cdfef04c066f94ca4d89dc3ebfb3d27c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/dealing-with-the-onset-of-dementia\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Caring for Mother at Home: Dealing with the Onset of Dementia"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/#website","url":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/","name":"Preferred Care at Home","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/#\/schema\/person\/cdfef04c066f94ca4d89dc3ebfb3d27c","name":"Laurie Salmons, RN, BSN","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c3de0d99fffd33e3941d0f6dec47787f299436a33d297de574bb916ec606cd17?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c3de0d99fffd33e3941d0f6dec47787f299436a33d297de574bb916ec606cd17?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Laurie Salmons, RN, BSN"},"description":"Laurie has been a registered nurse for over 30 years with 20 of those years being spent in the home care industry. Her specialty is working with home care providers to improve the care delivery services of the elderly while in their homes. She has lectured on home care issues for the National Association of Home Care and Hospice and at regional and state conferences as well. Laurie co-authored a manual on Best Practices for the Home Care Patient. Laurie, who lives in Tennessee, also has personal experience in helping to obtain care services for her elderly mother and father in Virginia so she understands first-hand the importance of caring, supportive, and knowledgeable caregivers.","url":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/blog\/author\/laurie-salmons\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preferhome.com\/locations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}