Communicating With an Alzheimer's Patient

As Alzheimer's progresses, it diminishes a person's ability to
communicate with others and makes it difficult for caregivers to
fully understand a loved ones needs. Alzheimer's patients not only
have a difficult time speaking and expressing their thoughts,
feelings and emotions, but also have trouble understanding others
and tend to confuse words and general conversation. Learning to
communicate with a loved one who has Alzheimer's is essential
because it helps to understand their daily needs.

There are several changes that take place in the communication of a
person with Alzheimer's and you may notice that your loved one has
difficulty finding the right words, uses words they're familiar
with over and over and invents words that don't exist to describe
familiar objects. They may easily lose their train of thought,
have difficulty organizing words in a sentence and begin speaking
in their native language.

When they sense they're not properly communicating, people with
Alzheimer's tend to become agitated and use curse words and stop
speaking all together. Instead of relying on their words, they
might begin using gestures and pointing to convey their message.
Though the process can be frustrating, for both the Alzheimer's
patient and caregiver, it's important to familiarize with your
loved ones gestures and invented words so they're able to
communicate more efficiently.

Make sure your loved one always knows that you're listening and
trying to understand what they're saying. Be patient and make eye
contact, allowing them to finish what they're trying to say without
prodding, corrections or criticism. If your loved one is having
difficulty finding the right word, help them by guessing which word
they're referring to and if you cannot guess, ask them to make a
gesture or point to something that relates to what they're trying
to say.

Patience is the key to communicating with a loved one suffering
from Alzheimer's and if you focus on their feelings, rather than
the facts, you may have a deeper understanding of what they're
really trying to say. Talking slowly, using short sentences and
repeating information can help them to process information easier
with less confusion and frustration.

Brian Willie is an Elder Law Attorney in California and Texas, and is a frequent author and speaker on the topic. He is the founder of the Alzheimer's Legal Resource Center. For more information visit: http://www.alrconline.com