Dementia Care During COVID-19
Dementia Caregivers Support Meeting Minutes
Topic: Dementia care during COVID-19
Facilitator: Bala Tripura Sundari, Saadiya Hurzuk, Shashidhar K
Date: 5th April 2020
Venue: Zoom Meeting
Time: 4 pm - 5 pm
- The session commenced at 4 pm via zoom meeting and was attended by 14 participants, which was a mixed crowd of dementia family carers and health care professionals.
- Ms Saadiya delivered a PowerPoint presentation on “Dementia Care during COVID-19" by addressing the current prevailing situations and also its effects on people with dementia and the carers.
- It highlighted the focus on COVID-19 guidelines provided by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Govt of India. Further the presentation emphasised on how to idealize care for persons living with dementia in a home-based care setup during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
- The presentation covered broadly on meaningful engagement strategies to be applied in care for people with dementia, cognitive stimulation to help keep challenging behaviour and psychological symptoms in dementia at bay, possible ways of involving persons with dementia in cognitively stimulating activities in a home setting - example reminiscence therapy with family using available household clues.
- It also emphasised on involving personal-interest fun activities with the person with dementia, care being taken to ensure safety and well being of all the parties involved.
- The presentation further highlighted how a caregiver must make observation before implementing any intervention and reaching a conclusion with respect to the behaviour of a person with dementia. It also spoke about the benefits of social interaction using technology while maintaining a physical distance.
- The session concluded with a Q&A to queries from the participants. Caregivers raised questions with regards to change in environment, common issues faced during the COVID-19 at home which was addressed by the ARDSI-Hyd facilitating team. The session ended with the team promising the participants to conduct more of such meeting to continue to support the Dementia family caregivers.
Click here for the Presentaion
