Communication in Dementia

Dementia refers to a type of progressive condition that eventually affects a person’s mental ability, making them unable to remember and comprehend the most basic tasks and facts of their daily lives. These people forget basic things such as time, date, place names and even their own names. This has a significant effect on their speech and ability to communicate effectively as they lack coordination of basic structures of communication such as tense (Kong, 2005). Communication with people with dementia can be quite a challenge Effective communication with people with dementia requires assistance through the use of conversational strategies which are established by healthcare providers.These strategies are implemented in order to reduce the cases of poor communication and comprehension (Zimmerman, 2011). The strategies play a significant role in enhancing comprehension, triggering compliance, offsetting the disorder in the moods of the patient as well as making it easy for them to accept information about their condition. These communication aid techniques have proved to be helpful in alleviating the emotional impact of the disease on the patient through enabling communication. One of the main factors that have adverse effects on patients with dementia is the inability to communicate and express themselves (Kong, 2005). The communication strategies enable the patient to develop a connection with people around them and develop a sense of belonging. This helps in suppressing the adverse effects such as violence and self-pity. The simple strategies as explained are easy to understand and can be implemented by the health practitioner or the family back at home.

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