With the increase in dementia rates, emphasizing how to deal with the patient, whether by family members or health care providers. A new research document raises the question of how to answer a patient who mixes times or places, and the therapeutic lie to relieve the patient’s distress?
20% of elderly dementia in the elderly
The presence of a contradictory reality in the patient with dementia is one of the common challenges, because the patient is consistent with a different moment or place.
For example, he may think that one of his parents will come back to the house, or he must leave it urgently to take his child to school, when it will not really happen.
4 ways
“There are 4 ways to respond to this confusion, two of them have succeeded,” said Dr. Alison Bilnick by McMaster Metropolitan University.
The first method, according to “the convention”, is to face or challenge the reality of the patient.
For example, say that the person at home is at the hospital. But experiences have shown that this method generally does not lead to an agreement, but can increase distress.
The second method is to coexist with the reality of the patient. For example, agreeing that a member of the deceased family, as one of the parents or husbands / woman, will come to visit or receive him later.
Although this strategy can succeed as a short -term strategy, it is limited because the promised event will never occur. This can possibly increase distress.
Two successful ways
The third method, which is one of the two methods that have been reactive, is to find an aspect of the reality of the patient who can be shared, without fully entering it.
For example, if the patient says that his father (the deceased) will take him, a health care team may ask him: “Do you miss your father?” This avoids lying, but it meets the patient’s emotional tone and allows him to share his feelings.
For a person who is anxious to leave a child or a pet by himself at home, a health care specialist can say: “Your neighbor takes care of everything at home.” This ensures general reassurance without confirmation or stabbing details.
As for the fourth method, it is for the patient who asks to go home again and again because he does not realize his medical need, he could ask: “What would you do if you were at home?” A need or a desire – like eating a cup of tea, walking or watching television – can be determined – which can be satisfied in the hospital environment.
In other words, the fourth successful method focuses on the diversion of the subject of the conversation of the problem that caused distress, to something other than they can involve the person. Agencies
