For those suffering from dementia, oftentimes routine and consistency can be very reassuring and comforting. If you have moved a loved one into assisted living to provide them with the proper care they need, establishing a routine (or maintaining their previous routine from before the move) and surrounding them with familiarity within their new home can play a key role in their quality of life and overall health and wellbeing.
In larger assisted living facilities, it's very possible that your loved one could have a different staff member caring for them every day, either due to rotating staff schedules or even high turnover for the facility's staff. This could quite easily cause a patient to become confused, agitated, or cause a great deal of anxiety.
At the Galway Homes we have a different approach: as a smaller-scale, privately-owned assisted living home, we have a team of longterm caregivers with a staff-to-resident ratio of 2:7 at any given time. With around-the-clock care, this not only means that there is always someone readily available when your loved one needs them, but it also means that our staff have a unique opportunity to truly build meaningful relationships with our residents. Our caregivers get to really know each person and their personalities, interests, and routines. This in turn helps build familiarity and trust between each individual resident and caregiver, and creates a close-knit community within our home.
Day to day, surrounding a person with dementia with familiarity can greatly reduce anxiety. Familiarity can be present in a number of ways: with consistent caregivers in the home, familiar photos, objects, or furnishings the family has used to decorate their loved one's room, regular visits from family and friends, and also familiar daily activities or routines. Routines are usually associated with long-term memory. Because dementia will typically affect short-term memory in the early stages, practicing the maintenance of a routine can help increase the chances of the physical or mental abilities associated with the specific routine remaining in later stages of dementia.
Call to schedule a tour, and learn more about how we can help care for your loved one at The Galway Homes: (913)676-7277
Or, visit us at thegalwayhomes.com
Source: verywellhealth.com