{"id":194,"date":"2020-07-28T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/?p=194"},"modified":"2020-09-15T21:13:23","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T21:13:23","slug":"reverting-back-to-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/reverting-back-to-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Reverting Back to the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why do people with Alzheimer\u2019s and other dementias retain&nbsp;older&nbsp;memories?<\/p>\n<p>Caregivers and family members of adults with Alzheimer\u2019s and other dementias notice their loved ones often talk about the distant past \u2014 and sometimes believe they\u2019re still living in those times long ago. At CiminoCare we always meet residents where they are at, whether they are talking about the news of today or a memory from&nbsp;the&nbsp;past.<\/p>\n<p>People with dementia start to lose the ability to capture, retain, and retrieve recent memories\u2014sometimes things that happened just a few moments ago. But longer-term memories, which are well encoded in a person\u2019s brain, tend to remain strong longer than recent events. And memories of children, work, childhood, and other past events that are happy ones have likely been revisited often during the person\u2019s life, so they\u2019re more entrenched in the brain, and more&nbsp;easily&nbsp;recalled.<\/p>\n<p>As the disease progresses, long-term memories will be affected as well, and the person will have greater difficulty accurately recalling things that happened a long time ago. The emotional memory of these times last much longer so keep trying to find those connections and look for&nbsp;nonverbal&nbsp;responses.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How should you respond?<\/strong><br \/>Families and friends of those with dementia often do not know how to respond when their loved ones keep talking about times long in the past \u2014 especially when the older adult believes that those times are taking place&nbsp;right&nbsp;now.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of correcting, criticizing, or arguing, families and caregivers might try to enter their older loved one\u2019s reality, thereby building trust and empathy, and reducing anxiety. Known as &#8220;validation therapy,&#8221; many families and caregivers use this technique instinctively without knowing&nbsp;its&nbsp;name.<\/p>\n<p>Another technique called &#8220;reminiscence therapy&#8221;&nbsp;can enliven mood, increase well-being, and promote pleasant behavior in adults with dementia as well as those around them. This technique emphasizes active discussion of past activities, events, and experiences \u2014 often with help of photographs, music, and&nbsp;familiar&nbsp;items.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some tips for connecting with those with dementia when they\u2019re &#8220;living in&nbsp;the&nbsp;past.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Encourage reminiscing. People with dementia (like the rest of us) want to connect and talk. Sharing memories is a happy activity.<\/li>\n<li>Try not to force the person to remember things that happened recently. Doing so often creates frustration and agitation \u2014 for both of you.<\/li>\n<li>Try using a familiar object to prompt conversation: a favorite book, a souvenir from a vacation, a &#8220;vintage&#8221; item of clothing.<\/li>\n<li>Consider making a photo album that tells the person\u2019s life story. You can make it together and revisit it often. Perhaps keep adding recent photos.<\/li>\n<li>Use all the senses to stay connected to a memory or a conversation. Sometimes it can be fun to have your loved one look at a lemon tree, taste a lemon and then make lemonade together. Using all the senses smell, taste, touch, sight, sound can trigger interactions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do people with Alzheimer\u2019s and other dementias retain older memories?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-assisted-living","category-general-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ciminocare.com\/courtyard-terrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}