How Can You Get and Keep Your Loved One’s Attention if She Has Dementia?

image_pdfimage_print
Elderly Care in Bernardsville NJ: How Can You Get and Keep Your Loved One's Attention if She Has Dementia?

Elderly Care in Bernardsville NJ: How Can You Get and Keep Your Loved One’s Attention if She Has Dementia?

Your loved one might find it extremely difficult to concentrate if she has dementia. That can mean that getting and keeping her attention isn’t as easy as it might have been in the past.

Use Gentle Touches with Your Loved One

Gentle touch can do so much for your loved one and for you. Just reaching out to your loved one and having that solid connection can help to ground both of you in the moment. A gentle touch on the hand or the arm can help to draw your loved one’s attention, but keeping your hand in place can also help her keep her attention on you.

Eye Contact Is Key

Having eye contact with your loved one literally helps her to focus on you. She focuses her eyes on you and that helps her to focus her mind on you as well. In some situations, it might be easy to get eye contact with your loved one. If there’s a lot of noise or distraction, this might be more difficult, however. Do what you can to reduce distractions as much as possible and try again.

Put Yourself at Her Level

Physically putting your face at the same level as your loved one’s can help to do quite a bit to maintain eye contact with her. This is especially useful if there are distractions that you can’t remove. Being physically closer to your loved one and at the same level helps her to be able to tune you in and the rest of the situation out.

Pay Attention When Your Loved One Is Talking to You

If your attention is divided when your loved one is talking to you or otherwise initiating communication, it’s really easy to miss something. The problem with a loved one who has dementia is that you might be inadvertently teaching her that you’re too busy to listen to her and that it doesn’t matter what she’s trying to share with you. That’s not how you feel, of course, but it’s likely the message that she gets.

If you need to see some techniques demonstrated for you, consider hiring elderly care providers. They have a lot of experience with these sorts of situations and can help you learn what works best with your loved one.

If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring professional elderly care in Bernardsville, NJ, please talk to the caring staff at Generations Home Health Care today. Providing Home Care in Somerset, Essex, Union, Morris and Hunterdon Counties. Call us today at (908) 290-0691 or (973) 241-4534.

Susan Myer, RN, BSN, CCRN, CDP