Understanding the behaviours

Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias affect the way our loved ones behave in ways that are difficult to understand. Increasing your knowledge of the condition is really important and can help you to understand why your loved one is behaving in a specific way and might make it easier for you to understand how you can adapt how you respond to that particular behavioural symptom of the disease.

Understanding the reasons behind the challenging behaviours is essential to being able to manage them effectively. Try to focus on the person, rather than on the behaviour itself, when dealing with challenging behaviour – try to understand what the intended function of the behaviour may be (often this is to communicate a need).

When dealing with challenging behaviours, it can be more beneficial to try to accommodate the behaviour, rather than control it. For example, if the person is continuously pacing up and down a room, rather than telling them to stop, find somewhere safe they can pace without disturbing anyone and make sure they have supportive shoes.

• People with dementia can sometimes recall events from a long time ago, even if they struggle to recall recent events. So talk about the past, show them photos and objects that may help them think about events and people.

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• Try to keep a regular routine, this can be reassuring for people with dementia.

• Reduce demands and distractions – changes in attention can mean it is harder for people with dementia to tune out background noises and to focus on several tasks.

• Watch out for patterns and triggers – certain environments and noises might upset a person with dementia. See if you can make the link and then keep those triggers to a minimum.

• Sometimes the changes in the brain mean a person with dementia can’t tell you what they need in the usual way, so look out for physical signs; perhaps fiddling with clothes means, “I need to use the bathroom”, or fidgeting means, “I am bored”. Look at the behaviour as an answer to the question, “Are you saying something?”. Rather than seeing challenging behaviour as a problem, it helps to see it as a method of communication.

• Make sure eyesight checks are up to date – sometimes eye problems are linked to hallucinations, which can be upsetting for the person with dementia.

• Take some time to settle yourself if you are feeling upset by the behaviours – they can be challenging to deal with, but if you can take a few deep breaths you will feel calmer when managing them.

• Be patient and reassure the person – remember, the behaviours that are challenging us are due to miscommunications in the brain caused by the disease, so try not to take them personally.

The brain section on this website may help with understanding how things like memory work, and learning about brain health will give you tips to help support your loved one’s brain health and protect your own.

Attending dementia specific care training courses can be very beneficial and have the added bonus of providing emotional support and an opportunity for social engagement, and even an opportunity to laugh.

We have included some links below to some really useful content on dealing with specific challenging behaviours.

Challenging Behaviour Factsheets from the Alzheimer Society of Ireland:

Unusual Behaviour

Aggressive Behaviour

Wandering

Hallucinations & Delusions

Sexual Difficulties

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