Table of Contents

The material which I will be posting will be a combination from The Savvy Caregiver and The 36 Hour Day. A topic will be introduced, why it is, how it manifests itself, and what the proper response is now since you know why the behavior is there in the first place. For instance, Helen's recent "shoplifting" is not an uncommon symptom of people with AZD. Why did she do it? She may not realize she is in a store, something may have caught her fancy and she forgot that you go to the checkout register before you can have whatever it was she walked off with. Gently guiding her verbally through the checkout tasks. There really are a lot of separate tasks involved, if you think about it. Bottom line? Helen for some reason (and there are many) is like a little 5-year old in the toy section. As I recall, my own mom's solution was to put my hands in my pockets and keep them there until we left the store. Telling Helen to do that won't work, but giving her something to hold in her hands while shopping might. Future posts will be as follows: memory, language, reasoning, judgement, perception, abstractions, attention, and organization.

After that I will give examples of behavior motivated by the intellect and by the emotions and how to interpret the behavior and intervene, especially as we get deeper into the 2nd stage. A little knowledge goes a long way toward understanding/helping Helen and her Alzheimer's. R