Dementia: Because of the changes to your senior’s brain when she develops dementia, she may not actually be able to remember or believe that she does indeed have dementia. This can be frustrating and scary for both of you.
Don’t Argue with Her or Try to Get Her to Believe You
If you’re spending a lot of time arguing with your senior about whether or not she does actually have dementia, you’re putting energy in the wrong place. She’s likely just upset, and you probably are too. Other than that, you’re not likely to get anywhere.
Pick Your Battles in Other Ways, Too
There’s something in dementia care called a therapeutic fib, which means that you’re doing what you can to lessen the confusion and anxiety that your elderly family member might experience when she’s confronted with reality. Correcting her and discounting what she says as untrue is likely going to contribute to feelings that make the situation worse.
Develop a Good Working Relationship with Her Doctors
Depending on the severity of your elderly family member’s dementia, you may be in the position of making the majority of her big health decisions. It’s important to have a solid working relationship with her doctors so that you’ve got the information and support that you need to support your senior. Anticipating her needs is going to be a huge help for you and for her.
Focus on Independence with Added Help
It’s really important that your elderly family member is able to remain as independent as possible for as long as possible. This would be true even if she realized that she has dementia. You want to support that independence and yet help her to be as safe as possible. This is a lot easier to do when you’ve got elderly care providers working with her, too. If she doesn’t agree that she needs help, point out that the help is for you. That’s not completely untrue, and you can still help your senior.
Stay Positive
Remember that this is a tough situation for your senior and definitely for you. if you’re not actively taking the best care possible of yourself, it’s really important that you put a plan in place to do so. That’s going to help you to have the best attitude you can toward your senior’s care.
There may come a time when your senior does accept that she’s dealing with dementia. But until she does, you may just have to work around that in order to get her the care that she needs.