Skip to main content

Dementia and Delusions

The New York Times recently posted the article linked below about dementia. I have been discussing this with my clients for years. You cannot usually engage in a logical argument with a one-year old child, and sometimes you cannot do so with an elder who has advanced dementia. You must deal with the disease of the mind in a way that works for that person.

The first time I heard of this issue was from a nurse at a nursing home. She said sometimes you just have to lie to someone, but she didn't call it a "lie" she said most of the time the "lies" were not big enough to even be called a "fib" this nurse called it a "fiblet." That is a little white-lie that helps to calm and redirect the patient so she is not upset by the issue.

You probably don't want to keep telling someone that her loved-one has died, but you might want to tell her that lunch will arive "soon" even though she just ate. I faced this issue personally with my grandmother. After my grandfather died, she kept asking for him. When we told her (again and again) that he was dead she cried like it was the first time she heard it. This happened for a little while before we realized it was cruel and just plain stupid to keep telling her something terrible that she could not remember. From then on we said he was out and would be back soon. This worked just fine.

I highly recommend going to the Alzheimer's Assocation website http://www.alz.org/ and reviewing their educational material. If your family member or friend has dementia, then you need to learn how to deal with these issues before they become a problem.

Packing Away a Delusion - NYTimes.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WILL YOU REALLY NEED LONG TERM CARE?

By Edward H. Adamsky             “The potentially catastrophic consequences of becoming disabled and needing long-term care is arguably the gravest financial risk that older adults face” says an Urban Institute report. But, will it happen to you? And, if so, have you saved enough money to pay for it? These are the worries we all face as we age. This is a worry even for younger folks because an accident or illness could trigger the need for care at any time.             The Urban Institute report shows that even though there are 6 million older Americans who need assistance with their activities of daily living, only about 500,000 folks are actually in nursing homes. Some use paid at-home care and many rely on unpaid family care. It seems that your chances of needing and paying for expenses care are relatively low. The stated average cost in the report is $138,000 for the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Clifton B. Kruse, Jr., Leading Elder Law Attorney, Dies at 74

Clifton B. Kruse , Jr., a revered elder law attorney who was admired as much for his kindness and generosity to fellow practitioners as for his grasp of the law, died December 30, 2008, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was 74. The cause was complications from Alzheimer's disease. For many in the field, Kruse set the standard for all that an elder law attorney can and should be. One of elder law's founding fathers, he combined a gentlemanly charm, warmth and caring with one of the sharpest and most ethical of legal minds. Wrote Arizona elder law attorney Robert Fleming in a tribute , "In my third of a century of elder law practice I have never met another lawyer who managed to pull together sophistication, heartfelt empathy, intellectual rigor and courtly manner in the same fashion Clifton Kruse projected. He did it, to all appearances, effortlessly. He was a friend and mentor to many in the elder law community (I count myself among those legions)." Kruse was the e...
1 comment
Read more

Stratfor - When Things Go Bad

I regularly read reports from Stratfor - an information service that comments on world affairs, terrorism and even personal safety.  This report is good reading to help anyone survive a bad situation. I thought it was worth repeating. When Things Go Bad By Scott Stewart Over the past several weeks, we [Stratfor] have discussed a number of different situations that can present a common problem to people caught up in them. First, we discussed how  domestic terrorism remains a persistent threat  in the United States, and that despite improvements in security measures since 2001,  soft targets still remain vulnerable to attack  by terrorist actors driven by a variety of motivations. Due to the devolution of the jihadist threat toward the grassroots, there is also a growing trend of jihadist actors using armed assaults instead of bombing attacks. We also discussed the  continuing problem of workplace violence , and finally, we discussed last week...
1 comment
Read more