10 Ways You Can Help a Loved One With Alzheimer’s Survive Hospitalization

This is a post by Marguerite Manteau-Rao, who blogs about mindfulness practice at Mind Deep. Marguerite’s 90-year-old mother lives with Alzheimer’s. She wrote this post in response to a belittling and aggravating experience when her mother was hospitalized after a stroke.

Reading of the way her mother was treated by doctors at the hospital — as if she didn’t exist, wasn’t worth caring for, or at most, was incompetent to have a choice in her own care — we’re happy to share Marguerite’s advice, that you may avoid similar situations with your loved ones in the future.

by Marguerite Manteau-Rao

Recently, the Care Quality Commission in the U.K. reports that 85 percent of dementia patients “were more likely to die in hospital” than people without the condition. According to Jeremy Hughes, Chief Executive of the British Alzheimer’s Society, “Hospitals are meant to be places of recovery, but people with dementia are going in too often, staying too long and dying in a hospital bed much more than those with any other condition.”

While much is out of our control, there are some steps we can take as family members to protect our loved ones with dementia during hospitalizations:

1. Avoid or shorten hospitalization if at all possible.

2. Try to visit every day, and be as present as you can during each visit; if not possible, call and insist on being connected to the person.

3. Have calendar with schedule of your visits posted that aides can use to reassure the person.

4. Make friend with the nurse’s aides and nurses, compliment them on what they do well; they will be your most effective advocates.

5. Coach the staff on the person’s preferences; type a list and have it posted next to vital signs chart; list may include lyrics of person’s favorite song.

6. Bring “home” to the room in form of family photos, flowers, favorite food, pillow, or quilt, familiar music.

7. Minimize distress from noise and commotion; shut the door, and if shared room, draw dividing curtain.

8. Give the person hope, and tell them they are going home soon.

9. Keep reminding the person about where they are and why.

10. Insist on involving person in decisions made about her.

Marguerite Manteau-Rao is a student of mindfulness meditation. She is a mindfulness-based psychotherapist, dementia care consultant and co-founder of Presence Care Project, a new mindfulness-based approach to dementia care training. She is also an art therapist and licensed clinical social worker, Zen Hospice volunteer, and writer for Huffington Post.

Featured image by Remus Pereni (Creative Commons)

This post originally appeared at The Huffington Post. It is republished here with the author’s permission.