Sometimes, a person has to be creative when caregiving for a person with dementia.

Jane Hope, a support and education coordinator for the Alzheimer Society of B.C., has some tricks up her sleeve.

“We’re doing a full day, or almost full day, workshop on creative approaches to dementia caregiving,” Hope said, adding the workshop will give tips on how to deal with a person with challenging behavior.

“[It’s] just some techniques and to deal with that,” Hope said.

There are plenty of difficulties in caring for loved ones with some form of dementia.

“It’s difficult,” Hope said. “The memory loss. The repetitive questioning.”

People with dementia lose their ability to make decisions and can’t perform simple or everyday tasks, like cooking. There are other developments too, like not eating and a lack of personal hygiene.

“Part of it is [people] don’t know how to deal with somebody with dementia,” Hope said, regarding creative approaches to handling the person with the illness.

She said part of the battle is remaining patient, even when asked the same question over and over.

“There are ways to deal with that,” Hope said.

For example, instead of telling the person they have a doctor’s appointment at the end of the week, tell them a few minutes before.

Hope also suggested not asking people with dementia lots of questions.

“We communicate a lot and we ask people questions,” Hope said. “But if you ask somebody with dementia what they want for lunch, think of all the possible answers to that question.”

She said the person may decide it’s easier to say he or she is not hungry.

“All [the caregiver] needed to do was make the choice for that person,” Hope said.

One thing caregivers struggle with is choosing not to tell the truth to their loved one. There are times when it will make life easier.

Some people who have dementia may, for example, think it’s 1940 and their partner is out fishing and will be back later, even though their partner died 20 years ago.

“It may be just as easy to say ‘yup’,” Hope said. “It’s not lying. It’s therapeutic fibbing.”

Hope said she asks the caregiver if the lie really matters. Often it doesn’t.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to go along with it,” Hope said. “I believe you can always reach a person with Alzheimer’s no matter how much they change.”

Communicating can be done through additional means, like body language.

“You have to be a bit of a detective,” Hope said.

At the workshop, the facilitators, Hope and Kern Windwraith, the manager of regional services at the Alzheimer society’s regional office, will also be outlining what dementia is.

“Dementia is the set of symptoms,” Hope said. “Dementia is caused by brain damage and brain damage is caused by the disease. Alzheimer’s is the most common.”

Hope said dementia progresses differently depending on the type of disease a person has.

“It can be a slow progression,” Hope said. “At first there is early memory loss. People lose words, lose names. Eventually, people lose the ability to communicate well. They slowly lose the ability to take care of themselves.”

editor@nanaimobulletin.com