Tips for Helping Alzheimer’s Patients Beat the Summer Heat

Caregiving in the Dog Days of Summer offers numerous tips for helping Alzheimer’s patients and other elder citizens beat the heat.  It’s also an interesting article because the author tells of his father’s experience and reasons for wanting a basement apartment  rather than one on an upper floor with a view.

                                     Since I live in the United States, I naturally think of beating the heat in summer at this time of year.  In other regions of the world, you may be considering ways to keep warm or beat the cold!

Caregivers need to be particularly sensitive to the needs of Alzheimer’s patients during the hotter months, since those with dementia often don’t realize they’re too hot and may be unable to express it if they are.  Also, if they are too hot, they may think nothing of shedding whatever clothes is necessary to feel cooler, just as a small child does, irregardless of whoever is around.  

I recall a daughter relating an incident about her father.  She found him sitting on the back steps with nothing on but his necktie and sunglasses.  Her son (his grandson) sat beside him clad in a diaper.  When she, in her horror, inquired why he had no clothes on, the father informed her, “It’s hot.” 

Dehydration is another problem with Alzheimer’s patients, particularly when it’s hot.  When I urged Mother to drink more fluids, she’d reply, “I’m not thirsty,” and shut her lips firmly.  So I, and later the nurses at the home, had to tempt her with fruit juices and tea as well as water.                           Do you have successful techniques to help Alzheimer’s patients “beat the summer heat?”