Posts tagged "Elderly"

Dealing with the elderly that suffer from Dementia, Alzheimer’s, or other mental instability can be difficult

Article by Jason Rosete

Taking care of the elderly can already be an occasionally taxing chore, however dealing with the elderly that suffer from dementia, Alzheimer?s, or other mental instability can be even more difficult. In this brief article, we?ll go over some of the many ways you can make caring for these elderly residents significantly easier.

There are many different types of dementia ? not only that brought on by Alzheimer?s, but also vascular dementia (when parts of the brain get cut off from the supply of blood), amongst others. The effects can range from memory loss to being agitated more easily, loss of communicative skills including hearing and speech, fine motor skills and manual dexterity, and general inability to do everyday tasks like eating, dressing, bathing, getting into and out of beds or chairs, or even walking. A common issue is maintaining the resident?s sense of dignity, due to the increased amount of care (especially on a personal level) that residents with dementia require. Since most of this care is extremely intimate, it is important to try and keep the resident from feeling overly embarrassed.

It is important to realize what types of difficulty your family member is experiencing, as certain facilities don?t have the ability to properly care for elderly residents with dementia, whereas others might be specifically geared towards them. Probably the biggest challenge is the sudden and unprovoked changes in mood that most commonly take the form of anger, frustration, or agitation. It can be very difficult to calm the resident down, and if their communication skills have been deteriorated, it can be even harder. Sometimes a favorite meal or snack or form of entertainment will work, but it is important not to treat the resident too much like a child.

Certain rare effects might be present, such as anachronistic thoughts or even fantasies. Some residents might believe they are reliving a certain period of their life, and think they are in a different place or even a different time than they actually are. While there are certain medications that can slow the effects of dementia, there is currently no cure. All in all, your goal as a family member should always be to make sure your loved one is receiving the proper type and amount of care, depending on their mental state. As an employee, it should be to help as much as possible while intruding as little as possible.

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Expressive Arts Therapy for Elderly Patients

Article by Aliya Grey

“I just got all around the music and let it get all around me.” This is the way Lorna Smith, a resident at Hazel I. Findlay Country Manor in Saint Johns, Michigan, described her experience during one of the regular music therapy sessions offered by music therapist and gerontologist Dr. Stephen Hale.

The program facilitates long-term care for residents who suffer from Alzheimer’s and other severe dementia-causing disorders. Like Smith, many of these residents, who daily battle against decreasing levels of cognitive functioning, perk up immediately as soon as Dr. Hale starts to strum his guitar. Suddenly animated, many of them begin to laugh and smile, clapping and nodding their heads in time to the rhythm. While many residents typically have trouble maintaining focus and remaining alert, as soon as Dr. Hale begins a music therapy session they make eye contact with him easily. When the music starts, their former listlessness and agitation quickly disappears.

“Music therapy in a long-term care setting has a particular value for residents who become isolated, withdrawn and depressed,” says Vicki Ritz, the program’s director of nursing.

Alzheimer’s patients are not the only ones whose lives have been significantly improved by music, art, and dance therapy. The treatment has been shown to benefit people suffering from a wide range of disorders, including schizophrenia, aphasia, autism, Tourette Syndrome, and Parkinson’s disease.

Elaine Hall, who adopted her autistic son, Neal, from a Russian orphanage when he was 2-years-old, has made it her mission to bring art therapy to children who have difficulty expressing themselves.

“I wanted to teach theater and dance to kids with autism, cerebral palsy,” attention-deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome, she said, “anything that gets somebody kicked out of everywhere else.”

Hall, who has been dubbed “the child whisperer” because of her knack for engaging children in performance, founded the Miracle Project as a way to carry out her mission. Formerly an acting coach for Hollywood film and television stars, Hall now prefers to focus her attention on the very young. The Mircale Project, “a musical theater and video arts program for children of all abilities celebrating music, dance, story and culture,” produced a documentary called “Autism: The Musical” that HBO released in 2008. The film chronicles the struggles of a group of autistic children and their families as they get ready to put on a show.

“The first 11 weeks were so chaotic, kids were literally hiding under tables and spinning around in circles,” Hall recalls, then whispers: “Then all of a sudden they start coming together as a group. We wrote a play. We learned songs. We wore costumes. We no longer talked about Steven hiding under tables. We we’re saying, ‘O.K., what role do you think Steven should play?’ “

Today, as many as seventy universities across the country offer arts therapy programs. Once considered a dubious science at best, expressive arts therapy is now understood to be an important tool in the therapeutic process. Many researchers believe that this is due in large part to the neurological effects of music and dance. Rhythm stimulates activity in parts of the brain that control cognitive function. By promoting communication and facilitating the development of motor skills and synaptic reorganization, music and dance therapy can foster rehabilitation after a stroke or severe brain injury.

Music therapy is also proven to produce calming effects on the body and mind, slowing blood pressure and decreasing heart rate, blood pressure, depression, and anxiety. Because emotional wellbeing plays an important part in overall healing, expressive arts therapy is likewise an important part of the healing process. Dancing and making art and music also have a social impact that helps individuals to feel confident to express themselves and connect with others around them. Music therapists call this the “ripple effect,” a term coined by Mercedes Pavlicevic and Gary Ansdell to describe music’s ability to naturally attract people and create larger social contexts.

Dr. Mike Crawford, professor of Psychological Medicine at Imperial College, who studies the medical effects of creative therapies, says that at times when patients are struggling with illness they “may find it difficult to express themselves using words, but through the skill of the therapist it may be possible to help people interact…in a way that is constructive, creative and enjoyable.”

Whether battling illness or not, just about anyone can benefit from the transformative power of art.

Related Therapy For Alzheimers Articles

Expressive Arts Therapy for Elderly Patients

Article by Aliya Grey

“I just got all around the music and let it get all around me.” This is the way Lorna Smith, a resident at Hazel I. Findlay Country Manor in Saint Johns, Michigan, described her experience during one of the regular music therapy sessions offered by music therapist and gerontologist Dr. Stephen Hale.

The program facilitates long-term care for residents who suffer from Alzheimer’s and other severe dementia-causing disorders. Like Smith, many of these residents, who daily battle against decreasing levels of cognitive functioning, perk up immediately as soon as Dr. Hale starts to strum his guitar. Suddenly animated, many of them begin to laugh and smile, clapping and nodding their heads in time to the rhythm. While many residents typically have trouble maintaining focus and remaining alert, as soon as Dr. Hale begins a music therapy session they make eye contact with him easily. When the music starts, their former listlessness and agitation quickly disappears.

“Music therapy in a long-term care setting has a particular value for residents who become isolated, withdrawn and depressed,” says Vicki Ritz, the program’s director of nursing.

Alzheimer’s patients are not the only ones whose lives have been significantly improved by music, art, and dance therapy. The treatment has been shown to benefit people suffering from a wide range of disorders, including schizophrenia, aphasia, autism, Tourette Syndrome, and Parkinson’s disease.

Elaine Hall, who adopted her autistic son, Neal, from a Russian orphanage when he was 2-years-old, has made it her mission to bring art therapy to children who have difficulty expressing themselves.

“I wanted to teach theater and dance to kids with autism, cerebral palsy,” attention-deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome, she said, “anything that gets somebody kicked out of everywhere else.”

Hall, who has been dubbed “the child whisperer” because of her knack for engaging children in performance, founded the Miracle Project as a way to carry out her mission. Formerly an acting coach for Hollywood film and television stars, Hall now prefers to focus her attention on the very young. The Mircale Project, “a musical theater and video arts program for children of all abilities celebrating music, dance, story and culture,” produced a documentary called “Autism: The Musical” that HBO released in 2008. The film chronicles the struggles of a group of autistic children and their families as they get ready to put on a show.

“The first 11 weeks were so chaotic, kids were literally hiding under tables and spinning around in circles,” Hall recalls, then whispers: “Then all of a sudden they start coming together as a group. We wrote a play. We learned songs. We wore costumes. We no longer talked about Steven hiding under tables. We we’re saying, ‘O.K., what role do you think Steven should play?’ “

Today, as many as seventy universities across the country offer arts therapy programs. Once considered a dubious science at best, expressive arts therapy is now understood to be an important tool in the therapeutic process. Many researchers believe that this is due in large part to the neurological effects of music and dance. Rhythm stimulates activity in parts of the brain that control cognitive function. By promoting communication and facilitating the development of motor skills and synaptic reorganization, music and dance therapy can foster rehabilitation after a stroke or severe brain injury.

Music therapy is also proven to produce calming effects on the body and mind, slowing blood pressure and decreasing heart rate, blood pressure, depression, and anxiety. Because emotional wellbeing plays an important part in overall healing, expressive arts therapy is likewise an important part of the healing process. Dancing and making art and music also have a social impact that helps individuals to feel confident to express themselves and connect with others around them. Music therapists call this the “ripple effect,” a term coined by Mercedes Pavlicevic and Gary Ansdell to describe music’s ability to naturally attract people and create larger social contexts.

Dr. Mike Crawford, professor of Psychological Medicine at Imperial College, who studies the medical effects of creative therapies, says that at times when patients are struggling with illness they “may find it difficult to express themselves using words, but through the skill of the therapist it may be possible to help people interact…in a way that is constructive, creative and enjoyable.”

Whether battling illness or not, just about anyone can benefit from the transformative power of art.

Find More Therapy For Alzheimers Articles

Massage Therapy for the Elderly

Article by Abigail Aaronson

According to touch massage therapy professionals, benefits of massages for the elderly include relaxation, blood pressure regulation, improvement of circulation and swelling, relief of joint pain treatment and reduction of stress, depression, anxiety and feelings of isolation.

The elderly are very interested in receiving therapeutic touch and are very willing to benefit from its increased popularity among practitioners. More and more often, therapists of all types are encouraged to speak to and work with adults living in nursing homes and assisted living communities. Especially popular among these therapists are those focused on promoting nursing home and assisted living clients’ wellbeing through touch.

Of course, providing therapeutic touch for this fast growing demographic does not come without complications. Many therapists will need to continue their education in order to provide proper care for their elderly clients. As with any form of massage, there are certain guidelines to follow when assessing client age and needs. This is very much a consideration with the elderly.

As expected, therapists who receive certifications in touch for the geriatric, or elderly, are taught to be extremely in tune with their clients needs. Frequently, the older client can be more sensitive to touch. A more gentle approach is occasionally necessary. That isn’t to say that elderly patients are fearful of touch. This is a common misunderstanding. Because even very light touching can bring about successful results toward promoting relaxation and wellbeing, it is wrongly believed that massages may be too much for the elderly patient.

With many demographics, pressure points are an easy way to get to the source of the muscle, stress or pain issue. The same is true with the geriatric population, though caution must be used when applying pressure. In some cases bone density loss, arthritis or general fragility prevents the therapist from exploring the pressure points of their elderly clients. However, with continued attention even light touch of pressure points can yield impressive and wonderful results.

Often massage therapy is being used among Alzheimer’s patients with exciting outcomes. Studies suggest that touch among even the most severely affected by the disease has restorative results. Occasionally non-verbal patients have suddenly vocalized during massage treatment, suggesting that touch can get to the core of the individual no matter what stage of Alzheimer’s they find themselves. Patients are also seeing increased mobility after a few sessions with a therapist.

It is important to note that, as with other demographics, each client must be treated as an individual. Their experience may be completely different than that of their peers and attention must be paid accordingly. Therapists could easily work on a 75 year-old patient that suffers from increased fragility, while at the same time working with a 95 year-old client that handles deep tissue therapy with ease.

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Vascular Dementia – A Major Health Problem for the Elderly

Article by Alex Jensen

Dementia has historically been looked upon as a common aging symptom. More recently, medical research has revealed not all aging is the same through the discovery of illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Vascular dementia is a major problem as well, but gets little play in the media.

Name the second most common form of dementia in adults over the age of 60? It’s vascular dementia. As the name suggests, the disease is caused by the robbing of oxygen to the brain over a long period of time due to vascular issues.

Our blood system moves oxygen to critical parts of the body. Your brain is obviously a critical one. With vascular dementia, one tends to see individuals suffer from symptoms due to vascular disease in which blood transportation is interfered with and restricted. In many cases, the restriction is due to mini strokes that occur but are not noticed. Over time, the effects accumulate and the person slowly starts to suffer dementia similar to Alzheimer’s disease.

Vascular Dementia generally impacts people over the age of 60. It also tends to occur more in men than women. This does not mean, however, that you do not have to worry about the disease until later in life. Although symptoms are not seen until later life, the cause of the damage is believed to occur due to lifestyle habits earlier in life as occurs with any vascular disease.

So, what lifestyle habits give rise to vascular dementia concerns later in life? Well, the same causes as associated with any vascular disease – smoking, obesity, lack of exercise, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and so on. In many ways, an argument may be made that vascular dementia is the result of not taking care of yourself earlier in life.

When it comes to the risks associated with vascular dementia, it is vital to realize that taking care of yourself today is the key to avoiding it down the road. In this case, living a healthy lifestyle is definitely a goal worth achieving.

Find More What Is Vascular Dementia Articles

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