Dementia Care Designed to Meet Patient Needs
In past decades, dementia care was designed for the general care of all patients living with the disease.
Today, care professionals and experts lean toward new methods that are proven to increase better outcomes and quality of life for patients with dementia.
The new method is based on the individual, not on all people living with dementia.
Dementia care is custom designed and based on the patient’s abilities.
This approach gives the entire medical team of the patient the needed tools to ease their care burden.
The individual approach is effective for patients living with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
The team creates a patient-centered model is built around the patient’s life story and personal information.
This outline helps to prioritize the facilitation of the patient’s best ability to function at every dementia stage.
Here’s how one state-of-the-art skilled nursing facility for patients with memory loss created and implemented the “individual activity-focused dementia care.”
Someone collects the life stories about each dementia patient and records his or her interests, routines, likes and dislikes, religious beliefs, family situation, and vocational and leisure interests to obtain a full picture of the patient’s life.
These helped give the patient the greatest degree of independence in activities of daily living, mobility, and leisure activity.
The patients were matched to therapeutic activities that brought meaning and joy to their lives, and these activities were adapted to the “just right challenge level” for successful participation for individuals at every stage of dementia.
Here are the steps of dementia care:
– The medical team allows the patients to use their abilities and function during every stage of dementia.
– Patient-centered care gathers life stories of people with dementia
– Understanding the interests, beliefs, leisure interests, and routines of patients.
– At dinner time, some patients with dementia face eating challenges
– Patients are encouraged to eat foods that are nourishing.
This helps maintain health but also allows the patients to have some control over what they are eating.
They select foods based on personal preferences.
– The patient is monitored so that the team members can get an in-depth understanding of the individual needs of each patient.
– Allows each dementia patient to be treated as an individual.
This helps to add meaning and fullness to the lives of patients.
Instead of isolating patients into a one-size-fits-all setting, this type of care allows them to share stories and embrace their past.
The patient should be watched for changes in eating behavior that may point to an issue or a problem.
If so, address them immediately.
