Basic Communication Tips And Coping Skills For Alzheimer's Families
©Eldercare 911, The Caregiver’s Complete Handbook for Making Decisions
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Very few tasks are more stressful for a family member than being an Alzheimer’s caregiver. As you and your family find it more difficult to care for or communicate with your parent, you may be more apt to be angry and frustrated. At the more advanced stages of the disease, you may be caring for someone you’ve known for fifty years, but who doesn’t recognize you in return. Your mother may look at you innocently, call you by the wrong name, and begin to tell you about her daughter whom she calls by the name of your grandmother. Your father, with whom you’ve had a lifelong close relationship and who adored his grandchildren, may ask you who you are and tell you he’s sorry he didn’t have children. It’s easy to understand why depression is so prevalent in Alzheimer’s families. It’s also easy to understand the anger you might feel when a parent asks the same question repeatedly even though you answered it seven times in the last five minutes, walks away in response to a request to “sit down, Mom,” or even becomes aggressive and actually strikes you with no warning and for what appears to be no reason at all. There is a reason for all these actions and reactions.