Help Caregivers Understand Your Loved One

A nurse caring for my mom at the nursing home explained that knowing more about the residents’ lives aided staff in caring for them.  Since Alzheimer’s patients often think they’re living in the past or speak of people in their past, information about these events and persons aid nurses and aides in relating to them.

“Did your mother ever work in a grocery store?” one nurse asked me.

“Yes, she owned and operated a small country grocery store,” I answered.

“That explains it,” Patty said.  “Last night she wanted to wake up the residents in her suite because they hadn’t purchased anything.  She also keeps talking about shoplifters,” Patty added.

I explained that Mother frequently had trouble with shoplifters at her store.

This was just one of the incidents that my explanations helped the staff at the nursing home understand why Mother acted as she did.

Communication between family members and staff of nursing and assisted living homes often make it easier for understanding to occur.