Special Episode: Six Tips for Managing Behaviors in Alzheimer’s Disease

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Welcome to This is Getting Old: Moving Towards an Age-Friendly World, I’m your host Melissa Batchelor, and today I’ll be talking about</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Six Tips for Managing Behaviors in Alzheimer’s Disease. </span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Alzheimer’s disease, a person may do things that are very distressing to you as a caregiver. These are often categorized as behavioral and emotional behaviors and may range from being irritable; having major mood swings of being angry or sad; or being agitated. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alzheimer’s disease is in a nutshell, brain failure. When your brain fails, it means you can’t think clearly or interpret information from the world around you correctly. This can be frightening and confusing to the person living with the disease. These feelings of anxiety or being scared may cause the person to behave in ways that are challenging to you as a caregiver, but please understand that it’s not personal. The person living with Alzheimer’s disease is doing the best they can, and we need to adjust to them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Behaviors may include repetitive verbalizations – like saying “I want to go home” or “Help me! Help me!”. They may lash out in anger or resist care, like not wanting to take a shower or bath. They may accuse you of stealing from them or trying to poison them. These are just a few examples, but there are many other behaviors that you may see. The six tips I’m going to give you can serve as a problem-solving framework, because you’re going to have to be a detective and be reflective – as the person with the “big brain” – in order to manage these behaviors in an effective way. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So let’s get to it. Here are the Six Tips for Managing Behaviors in Alzheimer’s disease”</span></p> <p><strong>#1: Restrict</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">: This one is important if the behavior has the potenti