Health Notes, August 24th 2008, by Sarah Stacey

Connecting better with dementia patients
Talking to people with dementia can be a huge strain.   I felt inadequate that I didn’t know how to hold a conversation with my father, who was diagnosed with non-Alzheimers dementia in 1999.  Trying to follow his meanderings up seemingly nonsensical byways, then respond to the sudden odd leaps into lucidity which then evaporated into mist was draining.  He was mostly anxious and confused.

The most useful advice was not to try to impose my own logic on a conversation: ‘don’t try to make it make sense,’ said astrologer Shelley von Strunckel, whose mother had Alzheimers.  I didn’t always heed it but when I did, our meetings ran more smoothly and I didn’t beat myself up on my way home because I knew both of us had heard the edge in my voice.  My father died some years ago and I never found that sort of good advice in any book.  Now there is one – with an enormous amount more.   I found myself weeping as I read ‘Contented Dementia’ by Oliver James, which describes the SPECAL (Special Early Care for Alzheimers) method developed by his mother-in-law Penny Garner,  because this ‘wraparound care’, as they call it, offers such a loving and accepting way of interacting with people in this state.

After watching her own mother Dorothy’s struggles with dementia and the sadness it brought the family, Penny analysed what was happening and then how carers -  health professionals, family and friends - could enter into the demented person’s world rather than trying to tug them back into our reality.  Her most important point, says Oliver James, is that the only difference between the person with dementia today and the person you used to know is that they have no short term memory.  But, crucially, memories from long ago are still there, largely undamaged and intact.  Carers often worry that people with dementia live in the past but, explains Oliver James, it’s their way of making sense of things: ‘If you were sitting in a roomful of people and didn’t know why you were there – or even who you are - chances are you ‘d try to make sense of the situation by spinning back to something in the past that resembled it.’  Thus Penny’s mother, an inveterate traveller, assumed that doctor’s waiting rooms were airport departure lounges. By entering into Dorothy’s scenario, Penny found that she stayed calm and collaborative.  The strategy isn’t ‘just about encouraging them to sit reminiscing,’ James emphasises. ‘By allowing them to stay in a safe past, they are much less anxious so present day tasks – such as encouraging them to eat or go to the loo - become much easier.’

It’s an important book for carers of people with more advanced dementia and the advice is also relevant for earlier stages.   At the beginning, Penny Garner writes an open letter to readers who have been diagnosed with dementia, in which she explains that the book is designed for other people to learn what’s happening so that they can help rather than hinder.   She says:

• From now on, don’t worry – it will just make things worse.
• From now on, nothing new – just stick to what you know and love.
• Appoint the person you most trust as your advocate – and get them to read this book.
• Forget all about the diagnosis – you’re very good at forgetting, so use this skill to forget about dementia, and just enjoy your life.

This book can’t cure dementia but using some of the tips could make life easier and gentler for everyone involved.

To order a copy of Contented Dementia by Oliver James for £11.60 from Amazon, click here.

Natural Anti-depressant
A reader with mild depression says her life has been immeasurably improved by taking St Johns Wort daily: ‘my problems haven’t changed but the way I approach them has: I don’t feel so anxious or negative’.  St Johns Wort Extract by SolaRay, £11.49 for 60 capsules.  Just click here.

Natural Babies
The new plant-based Natural Baby range from Rhodes to Heaven, which contain essential oils of rose, chamomile and lavender and no known chemical skin irritants, has been voted fab by my yummymummy colleague. Look for Top-to-Toe Shampoo and Body Wash, £9.95, Baby Lotion, £6.95, and Botti Balm, £8.95, a petroleum-free, botanical jelly, with beeswax and castor oil.  From www.rhodestoheaven.com

Website of the week: www.wellbeingofwomen.org.uk
The website that tells you all about what women really want to know.