Dementia Patients Communication Skills Essay

In health and social care effective communication a key skill all professionals should have when working with families, carers, children and young people. Having this skill helps to build trust it can also encourage the individual to use the services. Effective communication is essential when trying to establish and maintain relationships and it is a process that involves listening, questioning, responding and understanding. However there are many barriers that can effect how effective the communication is a few examples of these barriers could be: language, personality, visual or auditory impairment or a disability. In order to over come these barriers there have been many advances in the strategies that can help in situations where the

Communication eases anxiety of the patients and eliminates more possibilities for mistakes, and lets each party know what is expected of them it also helps the care worker to communicate and use their skills to meets the service user’s rights and needs. In a care home, there are elderly people who may have speech difficulties, be hard of hearing, but the care worker should not use the effective communication skills too much because if the care worker speaks to one of the elderly which has hearing difficulties he must ensure he does not speak to loud as the elderly person may feel intimidated and may feel that the care worker is

Dementia sufferers communicate in many different ways. They may not be able to speak but they can communicate non-verbally with positive or negative behaviour. They can also communicate using body language and through posture.

All forms of dementia can affect the way a person communicates, so in time they may have to find different ways of expressing themselves and their feelings. As a carer your non-verbal communication will become important, your body language, facial expressions, gestures, eye contact and tone of voice will have to be taken into account when you are communicating with a sufferer. In the early stages of some forms of dementia people may have difficulty finding the right word they are looking for, and in the later stages of some forms of dementia the words could be lost completely. As the dementia progresses, it gets a lot

Dementia sufferers communicate in many different ways. They may not be able to speak but they can communicate non-verbally with positive or negative behaviour. They can also communicate using body language and through posture.

• Every individual, including individuals with dementia, has their unique life history, lifestyle, culture and preferences, including their likes, dislikes, hobbies and interests, which makes an individualised approach in care necessary.

Individuals who have communication problems need support to enable them to express themselves effectively. It is therefore important for the carer to be aware of the individuals preferred method of communication and also to support the individual to use their preferred method. Individuals have the right to communicate through their chosen method and their choice should be acknowledged and respected by supporting them. The individual’s right are particularly important when using specific communication methods

1.1 Losing the ability to communicate can be one of the most frustrating and difficult problems for people with dementia, their families and carers. As the illness progresses, a person with dementia experiences a gradual lessening of their ability to communicate. They find it more and more difficult to express themselves clearly and to understand what others say.

The way a person is behaving is usually a good indicator of what they are trying to communicate, especially if they have difficulty expressing their feelings with words. Body language will also provide clues. People wish to be heard and validated and the way they behave may indicate how they are feeling. so a person presenting as angry may be feeling frustrated. People presenting as sad may be experiencing vivid memories of a past event that seems very real and current to

The use of language is important, when talking to residents you need to keep things simpler than if you were talking to residents without dementia, however if you’re talking to an adult using very simple instructions this may seem patronising, it is important to choose your language carefully.

An individual’s background can influence their communication methods in many ways. Such as the way someone has been brought up, their different values in life, their relationships with family members. These can all be a factor to how they communicate with others. These factors can effect communication because if their relationships have been quite hard and they do not see their own families much, the individual will find it difficult to trust and open up to the care managers at the nursing home. This will make it hard for the care managers to get to know the real them and it will be difficult to recognize any problems that appear. Also it depends what the individual’s medical history is. They could be on a type of medication which effects there communication. They could suffer from having dementia or a stroke, there for this can effort your communication massively. With all three factors you might have to use simple sentences or even using picture cards as the individual might find it easier to understand what you’re

I found that non verbal communication was the best way to interact with this woman and also to make her feel a sense of peace and ease. At the beginning I used hand gestures mostly such as pointing to objects to see if that was what she wanted however as the weeks went on I discovered that she enjoyed the sense of being touched and therefore I was often given the opportunity to paint her nails and massage her hands. ‘You may need to use some hand gestures to make yourself understood. Pointing or demonstrating can help. Touching and holding the persons hand may help keep their attention and them that you care.’http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Dementia_-communication accessed 14/4/15. Knowing the best way to calm this service user when she was frustrated really gave me an advantage during communication and made her feel comfortable around me. This I felt was such a strength as it made not just the service user but myself comfortable and relaxed.

Communication is highly important, especially in an elderly care setting. It is useful in many different ways and situations, for example; if the service user had vision impairments, it is important that the professional speaks loud and clearly pronunciating properly however is not patronising in any way making the service user feel uncomfortable. This gets important information, such as changes to medication, across clearly to the service user without them feeling uncomfortable or unaware.

Dementia is an extremely common disease among the elderly, with 4 million Americans currently suffering from the Alzheimer’s type alone. Figures show that 3% of people between the ages of 65-74 suffer from the disease, rapidly increasing to 19% for the 75-84 age bracket, and as high as 47% for the over 85s. Therefore, it is easy to see why Dementia is such a large part of many people’s lives, whether they are suffering from the condition themselves, or have an elderly relative who requires full time care just to undertake simple day to day tasks. The disease can be extremely traumatic for the patient and their families, as the person, who may have been extremely lively and bright throughout their

The validation method is a good method to be applied when handling elderly persons suffering from dementia because it gives both caregiver and elderly joy they deserve. The method helps victims of dementia to have their life back by feeling whole, as it makes them safe. It can be used on those who have lost their speech so as to develop alternative ways of communicating such as signing, and also elevate them from feeling frustrated. However, the method may be difficult to use with non-family members due to many touching and intimacy involved with it (Feil, 2000).