Tag: sedation

Advocacy, Antipsychotic drugs, Music, Videos

she couldn’t sing because she was sedated

My Alzheimer's Story

My mother, who lived with dementia, was chemically and physically restrained every day for the forty-five months she lived in a dementia jail (aka a long-term care facility or nursing home).

These restraints could have been avoided if the medical personnel in charge of her care had addressed the root causes of the behaviours they found challenging in her. All they needed to do was to take a closer look at what was going on around Mom. If I could do it, surely they should have been able to.

When Mom was sedated, she was unable to do things she loved to do such as walking and singing. Here she is not singing (because she had been sedated an hour or so before), at some of the weekly sing-alongs conducted by volunteers at the place she resided:

Besides cruelly sedating her with antipsychotic drugs, no one who was involved with my mother’s care listened to my request to provide her with music therapy. So I hired a music therapist myself and the three of us enjoyed many happy afternoons together after the worst sedative effects of the chemical restraints had worn off. Here’s an example of one of those wonderful sessions:

a magical musical alzheimer gift

And this one was just four days before Mom died on August 17, 2016:

one last sing-along: august 13, 2016

I miss you Mom.

50 more pics that prove my mom was neglected and abused in long-term care

four years later is too late for my mom. but it’s not for others.

alzheimer disease didn’t do this. drugs and dementia jail did

10 reasons why neglect and abuse of elders with dementia may be the norm rather than the exception in long-term care facilities

25 practices long-term care workers know are elder neglect and abuse; it’s time to put a stop to it

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Care Partnering, Challenges & Solutions, Teepa Snow, Tips, tools & skills, Videos

Teepa Snow shares 10 tips to deal with hallucinations

My Alzheimer's Story
Hallucination surreal scene
People who live with dementia may see “strange” things we don’t

 

It can be disturbing, even frightening, for both a person living with dementia (PLWD) and her or his care partner when the PLWD has hallucinations.

We are taught that hallucinations are abnormal, the hallmarks of “crazy people,” and witnessing someone having hallucinations for no apparent reason is unsettling. It’s important to first check whether the hallucinations may be caused by physical factors such as a urinary tract infection (UTI). They may also be a side effect of a wide variety of medications, a combination of medications, or over medication. Investigate these potential causes.

Also, remember that mistaking one thing for another is not  “hallucinating.” For example, confusing the telephone with the TV remote is not a hallucination–it’s a misperception. If you stay calm and act normally when a PLWD has a hallucination, you can help reduce her or his anxiety (as well as your own) and keep everything on an even keel.

Imagine this for example:

Cricket and her mother Annie are alone in the kitchen of Annie’s house. They’re chopping carrots for supper. Annie is in the “amber” stage of dementia; she turns to Cricket.

“Where did the girls go?” Annie says.

“What girls Mom?”

“The two girls that were here.”

Cricket and Annie have been alone in the house for at least a week; they haven’t had any visitors during that time. “When Mom?” Cricket asks for clarification. “Two or three minutes ago!” Annie sounds annoyed. “Don’t be so stupid Cricket.”

Back in the early days, when Cricket was still a wet-behind-the-ears care partner, she would try to convince Annie that whatever other reality her mother was experiencing was not real. Cricket soon learned this approach didn’t work; it invariably ended in an argument. Cricket decided to change her behaviour. Thus:

“Oh, those girls, now I know who you mean Mom,” Cricket’s tone is calm and even.

“Well, where did they go?” Annie is still annoyed.

“I think they had an appointment. It was kind of rude of them to leave without saying goodbye wasn’t it?”

“It sure was.” Annie shakes her head.

“There’s no accounting for some people’s behaviour eh Mom?”

“No. It’s the last time I invite them here.”

“Good idea, Mom.”

In this example, Cricket defused the situation rather than fuelling it or escalating into an argument. She also turned her mother’s anger away from herself and redirected it toward the imaginary girls against whom she and her mother then became “allies.”

10 tips to deal with hallucinations

Going with the flow works wonders, but it takes awareness and practice. Here are some hands-on tips that can help:

  1. approach the PLWD’s preferred side
  2. verbally greet the PLWD
  3. move into PLWD’s personal space when invited
  4. use Hand Under Hand™
  5. repeat/agree/validate
  6. repeat/agree/validate
  7. take control of the situation
  8. allow the PLWD “off the hook”
  9. go with the flow
  10. repeat/agree/validate as required

Watch  dementia care pioneer Teepa Snow demonstrate in this short video:

 

 

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Challenges & Solutions, Resources, Teepa Snow, Tips, tools & skills, Videos

Teepa Snow demos 10 ways to calm a crisis with a person living with Alzheimer’s / dementia

My Alzheimer's Story

Teepa Snow calms crisis no video

When people feel trapped and terrified, they get agitated, anxious, and sometimes aggressive. It’s normal behaviour for human beings to lash out when they feel threatened, whether they have dementia or not.

Unfortunately, many people who care for people living with dementia (PLWD), including family, friends, healthcare personnel and caregivers, blame this normal behaviour on the disease rather than finding and addressing the real underlying causes.

More often than not, something in the environment or in the way the person with dementia is being treated or approached prompts the aggressive behaviour, which is in fact a perfectly normal response to something the PLWD may perceive as a threat of some kind.

In the video below, dementia care pioneer Teepa Snow tells the story of de-escalating a situation in which an 89-year-old woman with dementia became violent when care facility staff and EMS personnel tried to get her onto a gurney.

I have personally gone through similar events. At the time, I had no idea what to do. I have since seen others in versions of the same scenario; it’s clear they either don’t know what to do or if they do know what to do they aren’t doing it.

Teepa thin banner

Instead of blaming the PWLD and the disease and then “drugging them up” as Snow says in the video, we need to learn how to:

1) prevent crises from happening in the first place

2) de-escalate if and when they occur despite our best efforts

Here are 10 techniques anybody can use to calm a crisis in which a PLWD becomes distressed and/or aggressive (see disclaimer):

  1. Remove the threat
  2. Create space
  3. Get on her/his side
  4. Get at or below eye level
  5. Use Hand Under Hand™
  6. Breathe in sync
  7. Calm your voice
  8. Relax your body
  9. Attend to her/his needs
  10. Be willing to go where he/she is

Learn how to put the tips into practice by watching this five-minute video with Teepa Snow:

More here:

https://myalzheimersstory.com/2015/06/09/10-teepa-snow-videos-on-dementia-basics/

https://myalzheimersstory.com/2016/12/08/5-surefire-ways-to-stop-anger-and-aggression-in-people-who-live-with-alzheimers-disease-in-the-mid-and-later-stages/

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