Communicating Through Behavior

  • Persons with AD retain their desire to control their environment and their lives.
  • Memory loss creates fear and uncertainty; these feelings may trigger challenging behaviors
  • Persons with dementia have lower stress (frustration) level than normal
  • Behavior is a form of communication
  • All behavior has meaning.  It may not make sense to the caregiver, but it has a purpose for the person with AD
  • Often, both caregiver and patient are caught in a cycle of fatigue, which magnifies challenging behaviors
  • Try to interpret behavior as you would a "foreign language"