NE Nightingales Tip of the Week

Keeping your sanity while caring for elders with dementia

"It is not what you say, but how you say it."
Dementia impairs a person's ability to understand words and speak.  However, they can still benefit from non-verbal communication:
- body language
- voice tone
- facial expressions

It is important to note that as individual ability to process verbal information declines, the importance of how caregivers communicate verbally or non-verbally increases.

Here are some tips to enhance interaction:
_ the individual with dementia may feel confused, anxious, irritable and depressed, and may suffer from low self-esteem.  Consider relying on the 4 S's: 
- keep it SIMPLE 
- speak SLOWLY 
- SHOW by demonstration 
- SMILE when you speak