One of the frustrating aspects of working in short term rehab is difficulties with dementia. Recovery is not easy for the Geriatric population after a sickness or surgery. There is alot of hard work and effort required to achieve a full recovery to return home. Dementia can massively complicate the recovery process.
Following directions
One big complicating factor with dementia is the ability to follow directions to participate in the activity we are doing to facilitate recovery. If we can’t get then to participate in what we need to do while cuing verbally, demonstrating, or hands on guidance, we cannot achieve what we need.
Weight bearing restrictions
This can further complicate matters. It is frequently hard enough to properly maintain weight bearing restrictions during functional mobility for the Geriatric population. When you add in dementia, it is massively difficult to teach and maintain weight bearing restrictions.
Increased prevalence of dementia?
Over the years i have noticed a significant increase in the residents we see for short term rehabilitation having dementia. Even those that are not diagnosed, there seemes to be more confusion and short term memory issues coming out if the hospitals
So is there more dementia? Is it the area that I work? Is there an environmental issue? Is there a diet issue? Why are we seing more prevalence?
Poor understanding from families
Unfortunately along with the increasing amount of residents with dementia, there is a significant amount of families that never realized how bad “mom” actually has gotten. All too many times we hear, “they were fully independent just last week.”
Unfortunately these families don’t realize that their loved one had established routines to cover up the loss of cognition. They only go to the same places, eat the same meals, have the same daily routine. These compensation strategies have established long term memory and easily cover up the mental changes.
Sometimes we see some significant push back and anger when we point out how significant the memory problems are.
Dementia support groups
I have noticed an increase in local dementia support groups. Luckily for our families the facility holds a support group lunch and learn each month. These are great opportunities for families to learn what is going on. They learn how the changes have happened gradually and how easy it is to miss the signs.
What can I do?
As a therapist we try to educate the families. We also try to encourage families to join the lunch a and learns. Once the initial surprise and anger are mitigated, families become very grateful from the extra support offered to them.
As a family member we need to be aware that our own families are not immune to the same problems. Whatever is causing what seems to be an increase is possibly affecting us all. We need to facilitate better and healthy choices and improving cognitive health. We need to be proactive with our overall health for our futures. We need to eat right, exercise, get good sleep, and learn to control stress. It’s for our own mental health.
