Alzheimer’s is a disease in which various abnormal mental changes happen to the patient suffering from this psychosomatic ailment. These changes damage mental abilities including the memory. With time, the patient loses his cognitive abilities, reasoning power, and decision making skills. Sometimes, the patient suffers from personality and behavioral changes that are very difficult to deal with.
Unfortunately, Alzheimer’s disease is gradually becoming an epidemic since a huge population across the world is suffering from it. By the end of 2017, over 50 million people are likely to be suffering from this disease.
In every three seconds, somebody anywhere in the world becomes the prey of the disease. One more shocking revelation about the disease is that 1 in every 3 elderly dies because of this disease.
The medical experts and researchers are searching for ways to curb the disease. However, they have not achieved any considerable success in their efforts. They have not succeeded to invent or discover any effective way to help the patient permanently. However, with proper treatment, the patient can live ably. In simple words, the permanent cure is not possible, but life can run with less pain in the present.
The situation is really very shocking!
If putting the data aside, we talk about the family in which somebody is suffering from Alzheimer. We can understand how difficult it is for that family to manage the things because you need somebody who can consistently stay with the patient and look after him.
Those who can afford to pay for professional caregivers or homecare Maryland, they hire professional care giving services to ensure proper care of their patient. They know the better care the caregivers can provide they cannot. On the other hands, in those families in which they cannot afford the professional care giving services, and not everybody works, somebody from the family takes care of the patients.
This blog is dedicated to such unpaid caregivers. In this blog, I will share important do-it-yourself caregiving tips. These tips will do great help to the caregivers to look after their patients without having any bad effect on their health.
Here are the tips
Have a clear strategy and goal :
Until and unless you do not know the purpose of your task, you cannot develop a comprehensive strategy to look after the patient, and if you do not have the strategy, you cannot provide the best service to your patient, and maybe you can start feeling sick. And if you feel uncomfortable and sick then how you can look after your patient. So, both of you will have abad experience. The worst sufferer will be your patient.
So, instead of starting the care of your patient first, have some rest and make a plan regarding how you can look after your patient in the best way. Consider the daily routine of your patient while doing this so that you can make your strategy in away so that you can get enough time to relax.
Don’t overreact on misinterpretation of anything by the patient :
This is very common in Alzheimer’s patients that they misinterpret the things they see or hear. They may misunderstand you as well. So, the first thing that you need to learn is you should not overreact to anything they say. Listen to the patient patiently. Get your message across with little pace so that they can understand everything. If the patient does not understand anything in the first effort, don’t feel bad in recurring your words.
Do not overreact on strange behavior :
Your patient may shout at you. He may strike out at you. This may make you angry, but you need to control your emotions because this kind of behavior is very normal in Alzheimer.
The patient does not do any such activity to harm you or anybody around. This behavior is just to be noticed. He may overreact anytime when he may feel you are not paying attention to his words or he is feeling some kind of problem that you are not talking about.
Talk to them on the subjects they are interested in :
This is another important thing that you can do. You should talk to the patients regarding his school or college life, his best friend in school or college, his girlfriend… Don’t talk to him on any such issue that can make him aggressive. Many people become sensitive and aggressive when it comes to politics and religion, so avoid any such thing about these subjects that can upset him.
Keep meeting with the doctor :
This is important to meet the doctor frequently to have the patient examined by him. The doctor will examine the condition of the patient and change his prescription if required so as per the changed prescription, you need to bring changes in your patient care strategy.
Take Your Patient Amid People :
Living in his room across the day and night will only worsen the condition of the patient. So, it would be better to walk away with your patient. Take him to such places where he can meet with other people and have some fun with them. It would be better to educate them about the condition of your patient in advance so that they can talk to him accordingly.
The safety of your patient :
This is the most important thing to consider that you cannot compromise with. Behavioral changes, unsocial environment, and overreaction by you might put their safety at risk. So, you need to be very much careful about these things and ensure you take care of these facts very sensibly.
Final words :
Understand the psychology of the patient. An Alzheimer’s patient behaves like a child and needs attention like a child. Once you understand this, this will become easy for you to deal with the patient, and the tips shared on the blog will make it simpler to provide the best care to your patient.
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Author Bio:
Born and raised in New Delhi, graduated from University of Delhi, Parisha Sharma is a brilliant professional with a flair of writing on areas like health, sports, technology and more. Parisha is best known for his creative blogs and articles on lifestyle, food and travel. With a very valuable experience in the industry, Parisha has marked his footprints as a renowned guest blogger in Delhi.