Elder Care with Nancy Culp RN Communicating with an Elder that has Dementia using Therapeutic Fibbing

As a Registered Nurse with almost 38 years of nursing experience, most of which has been in the Long Term Care / Nursing Home sector of our health care continuum, I bring to you a series of articles & guides to help navigate thru the process of placing and sustaining a loved one in that setting.  This information is presented to give you support and advice. Overseeing the care of my own mother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's type dementia and spent to date the last 8 years in institutional living has brought with it understanding of what it is like to walk in your shoes.  For a period time, I had the unique experience of being Director of Nursing Services in the same facility my mother was placed which was in and of itself a challenge having to walk the fine line between both worlds with their respective responsibilities.  Here is my unique perspective for your benefit.

Mom had been living in an Assisted Living facility going on five years.  The ravishing decline to Alzheimer's type dementia created a dramatic change seen objectively only in the contrast seen in pictures taken over the years.  She had become isolated from the other clients because she could not remember their names and repeated questions to their frustration and her embarrassment.  A potential reality for them too close to their own fear of loosing their mental abilities… The day came to move Mom to a dementia unit in a long term care facility.  She was going to a state of the art dementia unit at one of The McGuire Groups premier long term care facilities Northgate Health Care Facility located inWestern New York. 

She went from a one bedroom apartment with many of her personal belongings, queen size bed and a view out her windows of the front door which she loved because she could see people coming and going all day long… to one small room with a twin size clinical bed and just enough room for her favorite recliner and small secretary desk.  The view out her window was now of a beautiful courtyard with flowers and trees. One day shortly after her move, I came to visit and there she was sitting in her recliner near the window.  I asked how she liked her new room and she said "this isn't a new room just the view out the window is different"!