It is important that throughout the disease process the person suffering from dementia continues to participate in all activities of daily living to the extent that their abilities allow them to do so. maintain your independence for as long as possible.
And when you begin to have limitations that make it difficult for you to perform these activities, sometimes it is only necessary to change the way you do them or facilitate their performance by offering appropriate support products for the person with dementia, as indicated Natalia Rosillo CarreteroOccupational therapist.
One of these daily activities, which can lead to stressful situations for the caregiver and discomfort for the patient, is wake up and get out of bed.
Next, this specialist offers us a series of recommendations to keep in mind:
- It is important when waking up the person to take as much time as necessary, without rushing and knocking gently on the door of the room before entering.
- Use a friendly and low tone of voice to prevent the person from being startled when waking up
- Wake him up in a gentle and loving way
- It is preferable not to use drastic measures such as pulling up the blinds, turning on the light in the room or pulling the blanket. You can turn on the light in the corridor or on the bedside table, open the curtains or gradually raise the blind.
- Do not insist that they get up quickly, it is better to give a few minutes so that people wake up little by little, without stress
- Carry out a small personal, spatial and temporal orientation: address the person by name, tell them where they are and what day it is, the activity they will do next, etc.
The following videos show the correct and incorrect way to proceed when waking up and getting up a person with dementia:
Waking up and getting out of bed correctly a person with dementia
Waking up and getting out of bed incorrectly to a person with dementia