How Can Sensory Stimulation Help Dementia Patients?

Health Care Facilities

Dementia affects brain function. Alzheimer’s disease may be the leading reason for progressive dementia, but there are vascular dementia, Lew body dementia and other dementia types. Irrespective of one’s age, dementia impacts cognitive abilities, like thinking, social and memory skills.

Several health care facilities provide mind and memory care services that keep the unique requirements of dementia patients in mind. Their care staffers help residents at a specific stage of dementia progression and design programming to aid them in finding joy daily. Besides, an essential part of the dementia program entails fostering significant connections between associates and residents through a personalized care plan for each resident and evidence-based tactics to contribute to their quality of life.

A strategy that a health and wellness center may use in its programming is sensory stimulation, initiating a joyful experience for each resident. To stimulate the senses of a resident, one has to engage them through taste, sound, imagery, touch and smell. Further, some sensory stimulation types may aid residents in remembering things from the past.

Why Does Sensory Stimulation Matter In A Memory Care Program?

A person with dementia experiences sensory stimulation right through the day. The stimuli trigger a form of activity in the brain of the person and aid them in interacting with the outside world. This form of stimulation is essential for each human being to thrive, but dementia affects it and may make them disengage from everyone else and what happens around them. It is a condition that complicates communicating for that person, which can contribute to agitation and negatively impact caregiving. A specific sensory stimulation type, known as memory stimulation, can engage the human senses to aid in recalling memories.

As per research featured in the Clinical Interventions in Aging journal, memory and sensory stimulation therapies can aid in improving several dementia-specific concerns for long-term care (LTC) environment residents.

Sensory Stimulation Possibly Treats Sleep Disturbances

Further, it is not uncommon for dementia patients to have trouble sleeping, which impacts their behavior and standard of health. As per a study featured in the Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders journal, disruption to sleep/wake cycles may not only cause behavioral disturbances but also speed up dementia disease progression. According to the study, sensory stimulation is likely to improve sleep for a dementia patient.

Dementia Possibly Induces Anxiety And Fear

Both issues can keep you from trusting your caregiver, which can complicate creating significant connections and determining your needs for associates. Those negative feelings can also make somebody having memory loss withdraw socially, triggering a feeling of isolation.