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Art of Doctor Talking to Sitting Patient in Gown

A trip to the hospital can be stressful for people with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia and their caregivers. Being prepared for emergency and planned hospital visits tin can save some of that stress. This article suggests ways to help you prepare and tips for making your visit to the emergency room or infirmary easier.

Infirmary Emergencies: What You Tin can Do

A trip to the emergency room (ER) can tire and frighten a person with Alzheimer's or other dementia. Here are some ways to cope:

  • Ask a friend or family member to go with you or meet you in the ER. He or she can stay with the person while you respond questions.
  • Be gear up to explain the symptoms and events leading upward to the ER visit—perhaps more than once to different staff members.
  • Tell ER staff that the person has dementia. Explain how best to talk with the person.
  • Comfort the person. Stay calm and positive. How you are feeling will get absorbed by others.
  • Be patient. Information technology could be a long wait if the reason for your visit is non life-threatening.
  • Recognize that results from the lab accept fourth dimension.
  • Realize that just because you do not see staff at work does non hateful they are not working.
  • Be aware that emergency room staff have limited preparation in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, so try to assist them better sympathize the person.
  • Encourage hospital staff to see the person as an individual and non but another patient with dementia who is dislocated and disoriented from the disease.
  • Do non assume the person volition be admitted to the hospital.
  • If the person must stay overnight in the hospital, endeavor to have a friend or family member stay with him or her.

2 people holding hands in a hospital bed

Do not get out the emergency room without a program. If y'all are sent home, make sure you sympathize all instructions for follow-up care.

What to Pack

An emergency pocketbook with the following items, packed ahead of fourth dimension, can make a visit to the ER go more than smoothly:

  • Health insurance cards
  • Lists of current medical conditions, medicines being taken, and allergies
  • Healthcare providers' names and phone numbers
  • Copies of healthcare advance directives (documents that spell out a patient'south wishes for finish-of-life care)
  • "Personal information sail" stating the person's preferred proper noun and linguistic communication; contact information for key family members and friends; demand for glasses, dentures, or hearing aids; behaviors of business; how the person communicates needs and expresses emotions; and living situation
  • Snacks and bottles of water
  • Incontinence briefs, if usually worn, moist wipes, and plastic bags
  • Comforting objects or music thespian with earphones
  • A change of clothing, toiletries, and personal medications for yourself
  • Hurting medicine, such as ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or aspirin—a trip to the emergency room may take longer than you lot think, and stress can atomic number 82 to a headache or other symptoms
  • A pad of paper and pen to write downward information and directions given to y'all by infirmary staff
  • A small amount of cash
  • A note on the exterior of the emergency pocketbook to remind y'all to have your cell phone and charger with you

By taking these steps in accelerate, you can reduce the stress and confusion that ofttimes back-trail a hospital visit, particularly if the visit is an unplanned trip to the emergency room.

Earlier a Planned Hospital Stay

With Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, it is wise to accept that hospitalization is a "when" and non an "if" event. Due to the nature of the disease, information technology is very probable that, at some point, the person you are caring for will exist hospitalized. Keep in listen that hospitals are not typically well-designed for patients with dementia. Preparation can make all the departure. Here are some tips.

  • Think about and talk over hospitalization before it happens, and every bit the disease and associated memory loss progress. Hospitalization is a choice. Talk nigh when hospice may be a better and more than appropriate culling.
  • Build a intendance squad of family, friends, and/or professional caregivers to support the person during the hospital stay. Practise non try to do it all alone.
  • Ask the md if the procedure can exist done during an outpatient visit. If not, ask if tests tin be washed before admission to the hospital to shorten the hospital stay.
  • Ask questions near anesthesia, catheters, and IVs. General anesthesia can accept side effects, so see if local anesthesia is an option.
  • Ask if regular medications can be connected during the hospital stay.
  • Inquire for a private room, with a reclining chair or bed, if insurance will cover it. It volition be calmer than a shared room.
  • Involve the person with dementia in the planning procedure equally much as possible.
  • Practise not talk about the infirmary stay in front of the person as if he or she is not there. This can exist upsetting and embarrassing.
  • Shortly earlier leaving home, tell the person with dementia that the ii of y'all are going to spend a short time in the hospital.

During the Hospital Stay

While the person with dementia is in the hospital:

  • Ask doctors to limit questions to the person, who may not be able to answer accurately. Instead, talk with the doc in individual, outside the person'due south room.
  • Help infirmary staff understand the person's normal functioning and behavior. Ask them to avoid using concrete restraints or medications to control behaviors.
  • Accept a family member, trusted friend, or hired caregiver stay with the person with Alzheimer's at all times if possible—even during medical tests. This may be hard to practise, but it will help keep the person calm and less frightened, making the hospital stay easier.
  • Tell the dr. immediately if the person seems suddenly worse or different. Medical problems such as fever, infection, medication side effects, and aridity can cause delirium, a state of extreme confusion and disorientation.
  • Ask friends and family unit to make calls, or use electronic mail or online tools to keep others informed near the person's progress.
  • Help the person fill out bill of fare requests. Open food containers and remove trays. Assistance with eating every bit needed.
  • Remind the person to drinkable fluids. Offer fluids regularly and take him or her make frequent trips to the bathroom.
  • Assume the person volition experience difficulty finding the bath and/or using a call button, bed adjustment buttons, or the phone.
  • Communicate with the person in the style he or she will best understand and reply.
  • Recognize that an unfamiliar identify, medicines, invasive tests, and surgery will make a person with dementia more confused. He or she will likely demand more assistance with personal care.
  • Accept deep breaths and schedule breaks for yourself!

If anxiety or agitation occurs, try the following:

  • Remove personal clothes from sight; they may remind the person of getting dressed and going home.
  • Post reminders or cues, like a sign labeling the bathroom door, if this comforts the person.
  • Turn off the television set, telephone ringer, and intercom. Minimize groundwork noise to prevent overstimulation.
  • Talk in a calm voice and offer reassurance. Repeat answers to questions when needed.
  • Provide a comforting touch or distract the person with offers of snacks and beverages.
  • Consider "unexpressed pain" (i.east., furrowed brow, clenched teeth or fists, kicking). Assume the person has pain if the condition or process is unremarkably associated with pain. Enquire for hurting evaluation and treatment every 4 hours—specially if the person has labored breathing, loud moaning, crying or grimacing, or if yous are unable to console or distract him or her.
  • Listen to soothing music or effort comforting rituals, such as reading, praying, singing, or reminiscing.
  • Slow downwardly; try not to rush the person.
  • Avert talking about subjects or events that may upset the person.

Working with Infirmary Staff

Call up that not anybody in the hospital knows the same bones facts nigh retentivity loss, Alzheimer's disease, and related dementias. You lot may need to help teach infirmary staff what approach works all-time with the person with Alzheimer'southward, what distresses or upsets him or her, and ways to reduce this distress.

Y'all can help the staff by providing them with a personal information sheet that includes the person's normal routine, how he or she prefers to be addressed (eastward.g., Miss Minnie, Dr. James, Jane, Mr. Miller, etc.), personal habits, likes and dislikes, possible behaviors (what might trigger them and how best to respond), and nonverbal signs of hurting or discomfort.

Help staff empathise what the person's "baseline" is (prior level of performance) to aid differentiate between dementia and astute confusion or delirium.

You should:

  • Place a copy of the personal data canvass with the chart in the hospital room and at the nurse's station.
  • With the hospital staff, decide who will do what for the person with Alzheimer's disease. For example, you may want to be the one who helps with bathing, eating, or using the bathroom.
  • Inform the staff almost any hearing difficulties and/or other advice problems, and offer ideas for what works best in those instances.
  • Make sure the person is safe. Tell the staff virtually any previous problems with wandering, getting lost, falls, suspiciousness and/or delusional behavior.
  • Not presume the staff knows the person's needs. Inform them in a polite, at-home fashion.
  • Inquire questions when you do not empathise certain hospital procedures and tests or when yous take whatever concerns. Practise not exist agape to be an advocate.
  • Plan early for discharge. Ask the infirmary discharge planner about eligibility for dwelling house health services, equipment, or other long-term intendance options. Prepare for an increased level of caregiving.
  • Realize that infirmary staff are providing care for many people. Practise the art of patience.

For more information on dealing with dementia and hospitalization, come across the University of California, San Francisco, Memory and Aging Center's Tips for Hospitalization.

For More than Information Virtually Hospitalization and Alzheimer's

NIA Alzheimer'southward and related Dementias Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center
800-438-4380
adear@nia.nih.gov
www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers
The NIA ADEAR Center offers information and gratis impress publications about Alzheimer's and related dementias for families, caregivers, and health professionals. ADEAR Eye staff answer phone, email, and written requests and make referrals to local and national resources.

Alzheimers.gov
world wide web.alzheimers.gov
Explore the Alzheimers.gov portal for information and resources on Alzheimer's and related dementias from across the federal government.

This content is provided by the NIH National Institute on Aging (NIA). NIA scientists and other experts review this content to ensure it is accurate and upward to date.

Content reviewed: May xviii, 2017

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Source: https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/going-hospital-tips-dementia-caregivers