Working with People with
Dementia
And Other Conditions that Affect the
Brain
What we will be talking about today..
• Brief overview of what the brain does
• What happens if the brain is damaged
• Dementia – some background information
• Understanding the behaviour of people with
dementia
The Brain
• The average human brain weighs 3lbs (1.5kg)
• Men’s brains are slightly heavier….
• But bigger does not mean better - cavemen’s
brains were even heavier!!
• The brain contains roughly 15 - 33 billion
neurons
To get us started………
• What has your brain been doing this
morning???!!
• Spend five minutes talking to the people
next to you about what your brain has had
to do since you got up this morning….
The Brain (continued)
• The brain is responsible for our thoughts and
emotions
• The brain controls our movements
• The brain is responsible for controlling all of
our senses – the role of our eyes, ears, taste buds
etc is to get information to our brains
• The brain controls the other organ systems (eg
breathing)
• Different parts of the brain do different things
What Different Parts of the Brain Do….
• The temporal lobe is important for language and
memory; it is also involved in our hearing and
ability to recognise faces
• The frontal lobe is our emotional and behavioural
control centre - it also controls motivation and
problem solving
• The bottom part of the brain controls essential
physical functions (eg heart rate & swallowing)
• Other areas control our movements, senses,
balance and vision.
• Generally, the left side of the brain controls the
right side of our body (and vice versa)
What happens if the brain is damaged..
• If only a small part of the brain is damaged (eg
by a stroke or in an accident), people may have
very specific problems
• For example:
– Frontal lobe damage caused by an accident
with explosives (Phineas Gage – personality
change)
– Temporal lobe damage caused by surgery to
prevent epilepsy (‘HM’ – loss of short term
memory and memories for events for the 2
years before surgery)
Continued…
• Dementia is caused by damage to the brain
• We will be talking today about the cognitive
and emotional problems experienced by
people with dementia
• Cognitive = memory / thinking
• People who have suffered strokes may have
similar kinds of problems
• But remember, much about how the brain
works remains a mystery…..
Working With People With Dementia Task 1
• Symptoms/Signs of Dementia???
– Hint: Think about what the different parts of the brain do…
• What percentage of people over 80 years
of age suffer from dementia???
• How many types of dementia are there???
Working With Older People With
Cognitive Problems
• Dementia is a word that describes a progressive
brain disease – it is not ‘normal’ aging
• Different types of dementia effect different
parts of the brain and therefore cause different
problems
• Alzheimer’s dementia is the most common type
– early problems often include remembering
new things and keeping track of the day/date.
• As more and more people live longer, the
number of people with dementia is increasing
Understanding Behaviour
• Behaviour means something – it is a form of
communication.
• Behaviour is caused by our thoughts or feelings
(emotions)
• We work out from the way people are behaving
what they are thinking and feeling
• For example…
• If somebody is shaking their fist, we would
probably think that they are feeling angry.
• But sometimes behaviour can be difficult to
understand
• And sometimes it is not as obvious as it
seems…
• For example….
• Imagine that you find your neighbour in floods of tears.
He’d lost his job the week before and has a young family
to support. What would you think?
• (Actually, he’s won £2million on the lottery –
they are tears of relief and joy!!)
•
Even though it may not seem to ‘make sense’
or to be ‘pointless’, the behaviour of people
with dementia is no different from other
people’s behaviour – it means something and is
caused by thoughts and feelings
•
Because we do not know what it is like to have
dementia, it can be more difficult for us to
understand the thoughts, feelings and
behaviour of people with dementia
TASK 2: How would You Feel
If………………
• Give handout supplement 3 to the group and
allow 5-10 minutes to complete it.
Discussion about Task 3
• Could the problems have been avoided??
• Communication??
• What could be done to cope with the thoughts and
feelings in the three examples??
- Provide distraction: the more you know about
the person, the better this will work
- Feeling safe is vital….
Supporting People with Dementia
•
We have to try to understand what the person
with dementia may be thinking or feeling to be
able to understand their behaviour
•
Interaction with other people is crucial to the
well being of people with dementia
•
Understanding behaviour can help us to cope
with it
• A lot of people don’t like being told what to do
– that does not change when someone gets
dementia!!
• Whenever possible, avoid confrontation and
arguments
• Try giving people time to calm down – go and
do something else and when you return, don’t
talk about what happened before…
• Remember that we can all jump to the wrong
conclusion. Be prepared to question yourself - is
there another way of understanding the
behaviour?
• For example, pain is a very common cause of
‘challenging’ behaviour
• It is very common to think that people with
dementia are doing things to annoy us on
purpose, but actually this is very unlikely
Some final thoughts…
• Different ways of coping work for different
people. It can take a few different approaches
before you find one that works
• Try to see the positive side of things – it is
better if your way of coping works half the time
than not at all
• The better we feel in ourselves, the better we
cope with stressful situations – look after
yourself, too……