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DiscussionDoes anyone have tips for communicating with someone with dementia?
Caregivers: Dementia | Last Active: Apr 9 8:57pm | Replies (24)Comment receiving replies
Replies to "Same! My husband has vascular dementia and I bought that clock thinking it wouldn't really be..."
That is great that he remembered what you'd said about when the clock would change. It's true—you don't know what's going on in there and what will stick and what won't. I'm getting pretty good at not correcting my husband when he doesn't remember or understand something trivial, but when it's something important, I still do. I can't help but think it's not doing him any favors to reinforce something that's not so, especially when he's having trouble hanging on to what's real anyway.
I mean, if a person makes a mistake remembering something or doesn't understand something that's relatively important and no one speaks up to tell that person otherwise, how is he to know what's real (even if only for a short time) and what isn't? Seems like that would make him lose his connection to reality even faster. And as long as it doesn't upset him (which, so far, it doesn't seem to), what is the harm?
I expect that there will come a time when it will be better for me not to speak up, but I don't think we're there yet.