Currently, there is no specific treatment for dementia, and since patients spend most of their time at home with short hospital stays, it is important to improve the care of caregivers. The quality of life of dementia patients can be effectively improved by reducing the symptoms and complications of dementia through good intervention care.
1、Psychological intervention
Patients with dementia are often anxious, such as fidgeting and walking back and forth. For patients who are often anxious, we should give them enough care, make sure the room is quiet, arrange interesting activities, and also instruct them to listen to some relaxing and soothing music. For patients who show depression, such as frequent sluggishness, sleep disturbance, and fatigue, listen patiently to the patient’s narrative, do not force the patient to do something unwillingly, say more caring words to the patient, and persuade the patient to increase his activities, such as handing him a comb and saying, “You have beautiful hair, comb it.” Let the person make the decision.
If you can show them what you think and what you want to do, invite them to do it with you, such as eating together, playing chess, reading the newspaper, etc. Patients with agonistic symptoms, such as often getting angry about small things or even showing aggressive behavior, should try to avoid all stressors, such as the ward environment, which should be set up according to the patient’s original habits as much as possible.
When patients show aggressive behaviors, the specific reasons for the aggression should be analyzed, and prohibitive and commanding language should not be used, let alone subduing or locking them in the room, which will increase the patient’s psychological pressure and make the condition worse. In the face of patients with aggressive behavior, we should try to divert the patient’s attention to his or her area of interest, which can effectively reduce the occurrence of aggressive behavior.
2、Cognitive training
Cognitive decline is the main manifestation of dementia, such as memory decline and loss, calculation ability decline, and language dysfunction.
Caregivers should make use of every opportunity to help patients use their brains to slow down the aggravation of symptoms, for example, by asking patients to arrange the order of numbers, classify objects, simple calculations, etc.; carry out some interesting activities, such as listening to music, riddles, storytelling, dancing, etc. to guide patients to use their brains more and improve their language and memory skills.
In addition, caregivers should be patient enough to use all opportunities of care and treatment to take the initiative to communicate with patients, such as using cards and pictures with words and phrases for training, encouraging patients to read books, newspapers, radio and TV, and receiving various stimuli from the outside world, which are important to prevent further mental decline. Of course, attention should also be paid to moderate use of the brain, such as advising patients to go outdoors after working for a period of time to relax the body and mind.
3、Body rehabilitation exercise
The fundamental purpose of the intervention is to help patients with dementia maintain their gradually declining physical functions. Appropriate brain exercises and physical activities can effectively delay the decline of mental and physical functions of patients with dementia. Physical exercise can improve physical fitness, promote blood circulation, and increase blood supply to the brain, thus slowing down the aging process.
For activities that patients can take care of themselves, such as dressing, eating, going to the toilet, bathing, etc., try to let them do them independently to maintain various functions; for patients who have lost some of their mobility, if their condition allows, let them do some simple chores such as washing dishes, sweeping the floor, handing things, etc., so that their minds can establish new conditioned reflexes.
4、Medication
Most patients with dementia suffer from many concomitant diseases and need to take a variety of medications, and patients often forget to take medication or take the wrong medication, or forget that they have already taken medication and take it again, if neglected, it will cause omission, underdose, overdose, and even poisoning.
Patients must be assisted by caregivers in the process of taking medication so that they do not forget or take it by mistake. For patients who often refuse to take medication, in addition to supervising the patient to take the medication, the patient must open his or her mouth to check if the medication has been swallowed to prevent the patient from spitting up or taking out the medication unattended.
