OT and Dementia
I just finished listening to episode 22 of the Glass Half Full podcast. Occupational therapists Natalie Barnes and Jessica Kersey do a great job in these podcasts and are great promoters of the field. The goal of their podcast is to promote occupational therapy by delivering a consistent message demonstrating how important occupation is to someone's livelihood. They achieve this by always looking at the glass half full.
In this particular episode, number 22, Natalie and Jessica bring on special guest Jeff Loveland. Jeff is an occupational therapist who's dad suffered from dementia. It was interesting hearing Jeff talk and get his perspective about all the things he and his brother had to go through being the primary care givers to his dad. Jeff notes that one of the first things to go is the driver's license due to motor issues. From here the everyday problems just continue to trickle down and care becomes hard. One of the hardest decisions to be made is when to make that switch to get some form of assistive care. As Jeff mentions, dementia is a disease that affects a lot of neurological aspects of the brain and this includes chemicals telling the brain that you are hungry. Obviously this can be a big problem and that is ultimately when assistive care needs to be considered. If you do not eat, many daily problems can occur as eating is essential for living. Self-care can become an issue due to an overstimulation. Eventually trouble communicating can become an issue as the brain just continues to become debilitating. Dementia is just an awful disease that can be really hard to cope with for the family members.
This episode really hit home for me as my grandmother had Alzheimer's disease and my uncle has be diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease a couple of years ago. It was really interesting hearing Jeff talk about all the decisions he and his brother had to make because I have watched my dad and his brothers make many of the same decisions. With my uncle the first thing we noticed was his loss of direction. He would get lost going to places he had been a hundred times before. My uncle lived by himself so the next thing we noticed was that he was probably forgetting to eat. This was about when my dad and his brothers decided an assistive living facility was necessary. Living independently just was not an option due the impact on the brain and his inability to perform ADLs. As I have watched my uncle suffer first hand and as I listened to Jeff talk, it is hard to comprehend how tough Alzheimer's and dementia can be to handle as caregivers. With that being said though I know there is a large role for occupational therapists to be able to help individuals suffering from dementia in the form of maintaining ADLs and trying to prevent the loss of ADLs.
As I have learned and as a future occupational therapist, it is important for us to improve the overall occupational performance of the client. As Jeff mentioned in the podcast, they helped his dad with self-care by putting grab bars and seat in his shower. To keep up his social skills, Jeff said he would find out what his dad had been doing on a certain day and would call and talk to him about that. A couple other adaptive first hand examples I have seen with my uncle. Recently he has been struggling to tie his shoes, so my dad went out and bought slip on shoes for him so shoelaces are no longer an issue. Just one way of using technology to our benefit. Showers have also been an issue due to the overstimulation that Jeff talked about in the episode. Luckily though, my uncle is a big Chic-Fil-A milkshake fan so if my dad brings a milkshake then it gets my uncle to take a shower. These are just a couple adaptations I have seen. Just listening to Jeff and seeing my dad care for his uncle, I know Occupational therapy can really play a major role benefiting and improving the lives of individuals suffering from any form of dementia.
Citation
In this particular episode, number 22, Natalie and Jessica bring on special guest Jeff Loveland. Jeff is an occupational therapist who's dad suffered from dementia. It was interesting hearing Jeff talk and get his perspective about all the things he and his brother had to go through being the primary care givers to his dad. Jeff notes that one of the first things to go is the driver's license due to motor issues. From here the everyday problems just continue to trickle down and care becomes hard. One of the hardest decisions to be made is when to make that switch to get some form of assistive care. As Jeff mentions, dementia is a disease that affects a lot of neurological aspects of the brain and this includes chemicals telling the brain that you are hungry. Obviously this can be a big problem and that is ultimately when assistive care needs to be considered. If you do not eat, many daily problems can occur as eating is essential for living. Self-care can become an issue due to an overstimulation. Eventually trouble communicating can become an issue as the brain just continues to become debilitating. Dementia is just an awful disease that can be really hard to cope with for the family members.
This episode really hit home for me as my grandmother had Alzheimer's disease and my uncle has be diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease a couple of years ago. It was really interesting hearing Jeff talk about all the decisions he and his brother had to make because I have watched my dad and his brothers make many of the same decisions. With my uncle the first thing we noticed was his loss of direction. He would get lost going to places he had been a hundred times before. My uncle lived by himself so the next thing we noticed was that he was probably forgetting to eat. This was about when my dad and his brothers decided an assistive living facility was necessary. Living independently just was not an option due the impact on the brain and his inability to perform ADLs. As I have watched my uncle suffer first hand and as I listened to Jeff talk, it is hard to comprehend how tough Alzheimer's and dementia can be to handle as caregivers. With that being said though I know there is a large role for occupational therapists to be able to help individuals suffering from dementia in the form of maintaining ADLs and trying to prevent the loss of ADLs.
As I have learned and as a future occupational therapist, it is important for us to improve the overall occupational performance of the client. As Jeff mentioned in the podcast, they helped his dad with self-care by putting grab bars and seat in his shower. To keep up his social skills, Jeff said he would find out what his dad had been doing on a certain day and would call and talk to him about that. A couple other adaptive first hand examples I have seen with my uncle. Recently he has been struggling to tie his shoes, so my dad went out and bought slip on shoes for him so shoelaces are no longer an issue. Just one way of using technology to our benefit. Showers have also been an issue due to the overstimulation that Jeff talked about in the episode. Luckily though, my uncle is a big Chic-Fil-A milkshake fan so if my dad brings a milkshake then it gets my uncle to take a shower. These are just a couple adaptations I have seen. Just listening to Jeff and seeing my dad care for his uncle, I know Occupational therapy can really play a major role benefiting and improving the lives of individuals suffering from any form of dementia.
Citation
Barnes, N., & Kersey, J. (2018, March 18). Caregiver Story-Telling: Dementia [Audio blog post]. Retrieved from https://glasshalffullot.com/podcast/caregiver-story-telling-demenai/
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