On the care of the demented elderly population, translated…
Last week, I’d attended the “Let’s Celebrate Mother’s Day” event hosted by the Catholic Alzheimer’s Foundation’s St. Joseph Nursing Home for the Demented Elderly, in the urging and enticing of the nursing home staff, the elderly ladies with dementia dressed up in bright colors, looked pretty, all had their makeups done, with their lipsticks, and they’d all flashed that radiant smile of theirs, they looked just like ordinary elderly ladies, nobody would know, that they were all, demented.
In the guidance of the nursing staff, everybody got into the moment. I saw the elderly men all opened up to wish the ladies around them, “Happy Mother’s Day”; there was a ninety-seven-year-old elderly woman who was under the weather, but, as she’d opened up, she’d said, “Hope everybody is healthy”, it was, very moving; the elderly man next to and elderly woman who was singing an old Chinese tune stated, that he’d wanted to, join in the chorus too; and maybe, under this amicable atmosphere, a normally ignoring others elderly woman, also became willing, to join in the musical celebrations, to sing.
As the eighty-six year-old Grandma Lin hummed on the Taiwanese tune, “I want to hold you tight”, she was fine, then all of a sudden, she’d, started crying. The staff immediately gone up to her, to ask how she was. Grandma Lin told, “I’d recalled the hardships that it took, for my mom to raise me, I really, really miss her now…” at which time, the elderly woman started getting emotional. But gladly, with the trained nursing staff’s guidance, the elderly woman started laughing again, soon enough, like nothing had happened from before, happily, interacted with the other people in the nursing home.
Respecting, that the Ailing are “Just Like the Rest of Us”
After the former higher level exec, Christine Broden was diagnosed with dementia, she’d still actively raised awareness on the illness, she’d once spoken at an international conference, “Being diagnosed with dementia, we’d struggled hard, to cope with every day living, our days are filled up by endless number of activities, with the passing of the days, all of these activities became more and more difficult for us to do, but I don’t want to be labeled as ‘abnormal’, don’t want to destroy the atmosphere of the place I was in, so, from time to time, I’d, hidden myself away, but I still hope, that the general public can, give us the dignities that we rightfully deserved, and cherish us too.”
The progressions of dementia will affect the cognitive abilities, the memories, causing living from day to day to get harder and harder, and there would even be some enigmatic behaviors to those all around, but those who are diagnosed still have a heart full of emotional responses, when they fell ill, they’ll feel, especially lonely, worried that they may be abandoned by their next-of-kin; expected and hoped, that others will respect, understand them, and they also carried the desires of keeping their dignities intact too, just like those who aged normally.
And so, we must, work hard, to understand the needs of the demented elderly, including the person’s life, background, temperament, and who s/he cares about, worked hard, to find out what cognitive abilities they still have intact, what their interests were, what they loved doing, so we can provide better cares for them all.
We Need “Caring, Concerns, and Dignity” in Order to Increase the Levels of Understanding
The demented elderly, because they’re ill, they would become very unstable, due to the complications of mental instability that came alongside their dementia. And, their long-term memories stay intact, and, it would be, hard for them, to forget everything that’s happened to them in the past, and, they have especially vivid memories during the holidays too. From the observations of the elderly interacting, we’d found, that other than being independent, getting them involved in socializing, the most important things are showing cares and concerns for them, and letting them have their dignities of life.
The caretakers can use the professional communication techniques, to get closer to how they were feeling, understand how to interact, to not just use the words to persuade them, to let them feel the warmth from the smiles so they can feel safe, use of the gestures, the body languages, as well as words, to convey to them, through the right kinds of guidance, from the elderly’s familiar environments, using the sensory stimulations, to help them trigger their emotional responses, not only will this help to improve their cognitive, as well as psychological difficulties, it can also, delay the progressions of their dementia, allowing them to live out their life in a dignified manner.
Dementia is not at all scary, what’s scary is how little people know about the illness, that they’re filled with discriminations, misunderstandings toward the elderly population who had been diagnosed, “individual-focused”, is the core character that the caretakers needed, patience, showing cares and concerns, let us all work together, to help the demented elderly population, find back their lost dignity.
So, other than providing the demented elderly with the physical needs, it’s even MORE important, to give them the social, emotional/psychological supports that they seek, because just because an elderly is demented, that doesn’t mean, that s/he stopped caring about her/his own human rights, and we should all work very hard, to help the demented elderly population to maintain that, because one day, it will be us, who will be needing that care, concern, and the dignities ourselves!
Life, the Obstacle Course 