Common Assisted Living Retirement Home Questions 4 | Do you take residents with difficult behavior?
Part of memory care is managing behavior from the residents, which we may find unusual or uncomfortable. This is a common symptom of all types of dementia. Many of our residents suffer from confusion, a level at which it is difficult for them to cope. The events transpiring around them may not make sense anymore. This, coupled with increasingly impaired verbal skills, often leads to behavior as their only means left to communicate with us.
Our Join Their Journey dementia care program teaches our staff to view all behavior as communication. If the behavior is “difficult” or unusual, it is likely a message from the resident that they are having a difficult time coping with their environment. Our challenge, then, is to use what we know about the resident through their Life Story, in order to decipher the message they are sending us. At times, it may be a trial-and-error process of redirecting and/or distracting the resident. However, persistence and patience usually leads us to develop a successful personal care plan to manage the behavior.
Their are many factors that may lead to unusual behavior. Some common factors to consider include environment (i.e. heat, cold, loud noise, etc.), medical issues (i.e. constipation, UTI, hypo/hyperglycemia, medication side effects, etc.), or physical discomfort (i.e. hunger, pain, lack of sleep, etc.).
Any community which is truly dedicated to dementia and memory care must, as a practice, at least consider accepting any type of resident behavior which is presented to them. The behavior may be difficult for us to manage. But, the alternative of a family member, who may be physical and emotional drained, managing the behavior at home presents a much higher risk.
Of course, before the resident moves into the community, there must be an assessment to determine if the behavior can be managed safely. If not, we can explore options, such as a temporary stay at a nursing facility to stabilize unsafe behavior, before eventually moving into our community. Ultimately, though, we will try to manage any dementia-related behavior, as long as it does not pose a significant threat to the health and well-being of the resident or those around them.
