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BETTER UNDERSTANDING DEMEMTIA |
People will often say that it's like walking through thick fog. Most of the time, the fog is too dense to be able to make sense of what you can see or hear.
But occasionally the fog lifts and understanding things becomes easier. Then a short time later, the fog surrounds the person and it becomes hard to understand things again.
It can be like trying to function in a vaguely familiar, but also completely unfamiliar, environment. We all know how annoying and confusing it is when we go to our usual supermarket and they've reconfigured the layout and changed the location of products you normally buy.
You turn down an aisle expecting to see biscuits but instead, you find toilet paper. The next aisle should have cleaning products, but it's got chocolate and lollies – a nice surprise this time, but where on earth is the soap? It's disorienting, and familiar, yet unfamiliar.
This unsettling feeling is described by many people with dementia and gives us a glimpse into the way they experience the world.
For us, this unsettling and frustrating feeling is short-lived, but for those with dementia this experience is common, distressing and will get worse.
When the fog lifts in those more lucid times, we need to listen carefully to what the person with dementia says – as it will help us to support them when the fog surrounds them once more.
Ruth Thomas is lead specialist care manager at EnlivenPlus, phone: 07 547 4349. EnlivenPlus provides specialist dementia care from $60.
