Another Quora question and answer I thought it might be useful to share to help others.
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Whatever you do, don’t tell them to calm down! Everyone hates being told what to do, including people who live with dementia day in and day out.
A good strategy is to not make them feel anxious in the first place, and then you won’t have to calm them down. To do that, try my BANGS approach:
BANGS: 5 surefire ways to stop aggression before it starts
There’s a big myth out there that dementia causes the people who live with it to be anxious when it’s actually a whole bunch of other stuff that, in most cases, lies behind the words and actions they use to communicate and that those around them find challenging.
For example:
Avoid noise (among other things):
loud sounds and dementia mostly don’t mix
Also, ask yourself these questions, and based on your own responses, adjust your behaviour accordingly:
20 questions that help explain why people with dementia get agitated and physically aggressive
And if you don’t manage to avoid a crisis, here’s what to do in case of one:
Teepa Snow demos 10 ways to calm a crisis with a person living with Alzheimer’s / dementia
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Teepa Snow demos 10 ways to calm a crisis with a person living with Alzheimer’s / dementia
Teepa Snow demos 10 first steps to calm & comfort a distressed person living with dementia
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