Patient discussions
Discussions about future care (including advance decisions) and financial matters should take place with the patient and their family and carers at an early stage. The patient should be given the opportunity at each care review to assess and change any advance statements and decisions they have made.[120][121]
Strategies that may foster improved communication with patients with dementia include using short and simple sentences; explaining things; decreasing distractions; asking close-ended questions or providing response choices; not pushing the patient to come up with a word, name, or memory; and using visual aids.[64][132]
Some strategies have been suggested by the American Academy of Neurology to improve functional performance and to help reduce behavioural problems in patients with dementia. These may include:
Scheduling toileting times and prompting to encourage voiding to reduce urinary incontinence
Playing music, particularly during meals and bathing
Walking or light forms of exercise.
Discuss coping techniques with carers, provide information about respite care, and identify means of drawing on support from friends, other family members, community organisations, and home care agencies.
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