Caring for someone living with dementia can feel unpredictable, but having a flexible plan can make daily life more manageable for both the caregiver and the person receiving care.
In this episode of Truth, Lies & Alzheimer’s, Lisa Skinner discusses how Caregiving needs change throughout the early, middle, and late stages of dementia. She shares practical ways caregivers can create supportive routines, recognize common triggers, improve communication, and adjust the home environment as a person’s abilities and needs change.
Listeners will learn how to preserve independence during the early stage, provide additional structure and reassurance during the middle stage, and prioritize comfort, safety, and familiar routines during the later stage.
Lisa also shares helpful communication prompts and non-medication strategies that caregivers can use when responding to confusion, Anxiety, agitation, resistance, or discomfort.
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
A caregiver planner does not need to be rigid. It should serve as a flexible guide that can be adjusted according to the individual’s preferences, abilities, energy level, safety needs, and stage of dementia.
The goal is not to create a perfect schedule. The goal is to provide greater predictability, reduce unnecessary Stress, and help caregivers respond with compassion, confidence, and understanding.
Helpful Reminder
Dementia affects every person differently. Strategies that work one day may need to be adjusted the next. Continue observing the person’s verbal and nonverbal cues, document what appears to trigger distress, and note which responses provide comfort or reassurance.
Caregivers should also seek medical guidance when they notice sudden changes in behavior, increased confusion, signs of pain, medication concerns, changes in eating or drinking, Sleep disruption, falls, or other significant Health and safety concerns.
Visit our Website – https://www.mindingdementiasummit.com/
About the Host:
Author Lisa Skinner is a behavioral specialist with expertise in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. In her 30+year career working with Family members and caregivers, Lisa has taught them how to successfully navigate the many challenges that accompany this heartbreaking disease. Lisa is both a Certified Dementia Practitioner and is also a certified dementia care trainer through the Alzheimer’s Association. She also holds a degree in Human Behavior.
Her latest book, “Truth, Lies & Alzheimer’s – Its Secret Faces” continues Lisa’s quest of working with dementia-related illnesses and teaching families and caregivers how to better understand the daunting challenges of brain disease. Her #1 Best-seller book “Not All Who Wander Need Be Lost,” was written at their urging. As someone who has had eight family members diagnosed with dementia, Lisa Skinner has found her calling in helping others through the struggle so they can have a better-quality relationship with their loved ones through Education and through her workshops on counter-intuitive solutions and tools to help people effectively manage the symptoms of brain disease. Lisa Skinner has appeared on many national and regional media broadcasts. Lisa helps explain behaviors caused by dementia, encourages those who feel burdened, and gives practical advice for how to respond.
So many people today are heavily impacted by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. The Alzheimer’s Association and the World Health Organization have projected that the number of people who will develop Alzheimer’s disease by the year 2050 worldwide will triple if a treatment or cure is not found. Society is not prepared to care for the projected increase of people who will develop this devastating disease. In her 30 years of working with family members and caregivers who suffer from dementia, Lisa has recognized how little people really understand the complexities of what living with this disease is really like. For Lisa, it starts with knowledge, education, and training.
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