Method of Dementia Care
OwnerJudy A. Cornishinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for caring persons suffering from dementia. The disclosed method of care lowers caregiver stress and helps the patient stay home longer. The disclosed method is a set of seven steps comprising tools caregivers can use to help someone who has dementia develop and maintain a sense of security and wellbeing, despite the progression of dementia. The seven steps include (1) managing mood, (2) making it safe to ask, (3) making it safe to trust, (4) creating social success, (5) creating a sense of control, (6) creating a sense of value, and (7) creating a sense of a safe future. The disclosed method provides simple steps that can attain immediate positive results.
Claims2
A method for a care giver or care givers to provide care to a person suffering from dementia, comprising the steps of:
- managing a mood of a person suffering from dementia by first managing a care giver's own mood by focusing the care giver's attention on the present moment, empathizing with the person's dementia and focusing attention on the person rather than a task of care;
- making it safe for the person to ask questions by providing information, chattering, avoiding emotional penalties associated with asking questions, and recognizing emotional tags such as the person's intonation, modulation, expression, gestures, or posture to determine the person's security to ask questions;
- making it safe for the person to trust the care giver by being punctual, and using the same care giver or care givers;
- the step of making it safe for the person to trust by respecting the person's dementia, the step of respecting the person's dementia comprising the steps of providing information and reassurance to the person without emotional penalties and avoiding testing the person's memory, the step respecting the person's dementia further comprising verbalization of each actions performed by the caregiver, modeling the actions for the person, and empathizing with the person's forgetfulness, the step of empathizing with the person's forgetfulness further comprising the steps of accepting the person's false, incorrect, lost, or altered memories;
- creating social success for the person by foreseeing awkward moments, managing conversations so that the person can win, supplying facts, focusing on the present and avoiding future or past events, or leading the person to favorite stories;
- creating a sense of control for the person by recognizing a level of anosognosia in the person and, if the level of anosognosia is other than none, providing care by stealth to foster in the person feelings of independence, the step of providing care by stealth further comprising the steps of enabling the person to engage in choices and letting the person believe the choices were the person's,
- creating a sense of value in the person by listening to the person and accepting and supporting the person's reality, the step of accepting and supporting the person's reality further comprising the step of casting blame on other people where the person has encountered problems, the step of accepting and supporting the person's reality further comprising the step of providing the person with opportunities to be gracious;
- and
- creating a sense of wellbeing and safety in the future by identifying a symbol of security for the person and expressing feelings of care and affection for the person.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.