How to Alleviate Stress when Working with Residents with Dementia

Over the past ten years or so, care homes in the UK have changed significantly in terms of the nature of the residents who live there. Today, around 80% of all care home residents are people with dementia or some form of memory problem, this means that most care homes face challenges that in the past, they may not have faced.
 

Studies have shown that when a caregiver is stressed, it means that dementia progresses at a quicker rate. Whereas, if a caregiver is not under larger amounts of stress, dementia tends to progress less quickly.
 

This American study has shown a significant link between the use of stress-management strategies in caregivers and the mental function that the people they care for have. The study showed that carers who adopt a problem-focused approach to dealing with common problems that caregivers have to deal with, experience greater health, and are also able to offer better care for people with dementia. It was also discovered that when caregivers use ‘health’ strategies for coping with stress, it can help to slow down the mental decline in people with dementia by as much as 37%.

 

Wondering how you can use this information to alleviate stress in a positive way when dealing with residents with dementia? Read on for everything that you need to know about coping with stress in a more positive way.

 

Dealing with dementia behaviours
 

Common dementia behaviours, such as anxiety, hallucinations, wandering, and sundowner’s syndrome can all be serious sources of stress for both carers and residents alike. A lot of people, even carers, can struggle to know how to handle the distress that these behaviours can cause. The strategies that can be used to better manage these beheviours and reduce stress are emotion-focused and problem-focused, each of which takes a slightly different approach.
 

Emotion-focused coping methods include using techniques that emphasise dealing with any feelings of anger, anxiety, shame or guilt that are caused by a source of stress, such as by caring for a resident living with dementia. The strategies for emotion-focused coping include finding ways to distract yourself from the stress, venting your feelings to others, and ignoring the cause of your stress.
 

Whereas, problem-focused coping methods focus on dealing with the source of stress directly. These strategies include removing yourself from the cause of your stress, sharing your concerns with another and seeking understanding, or coming up with a plan of action to tackle a stressful situation.
 

For instance, say a resident becomes agitated and begins to pace around the care home, taking a problem-focused approach would require you to research the possible causes of their agitation, such as anxiety. Then, the next step would be to examine whether the resident had recently been exposed to any of their triggers. The first step should be to try and calm them down by removing them from what’s causing them to feel agitated or by finding another activity to keep them busy with. Then, once their agitation has gone, you could think of ways to avoid the same situation from occurring again.

 

The impact carers have on the environment
 

As a person with dementia begins to deteriorate further, the influence that a carer has over them and their living environment increases. It is thought that this puts carers in a unique position because it means that they can influence the mental and physical health of a resident with dementia.
 

What it’s important to remember is that carers who are able to properly deal with their own physical and emotional needs are better able to provide a suitable living space for residents with dementia. Studies have shown that a close bond with a carer who is in a physically and mentally healthy state can help to manage the stress levels that people with dementia have.

 

How to healthily deal with stress
 

When it comes to caring for a person who has dementia, you will need to take advantage of both emotion-focused and problem-focused coping methods. Because the fact is that when you feel feelings of sadness, guilt, anger or frustration, you need to deal with these effectively. If you bottle them up, you won’t be helping yourself or your residents. A lot of care homes have support groups for carers that offer the ideal place to vent about everything that is upsetting you and causing you stress - these are a resource that it is definitely worthwhile taking advantage of.

 

What it’s important to bear in mind is that you need to be able to effectively deal with stress and reduce the chance that your emotions will bubble over and impact the health and wellness of your residents. You have a duty of care to offer, and to do that you need to be able to effectively alleviate stress and manage challenging situations.
 

Below are some tips for healthy ways to deal with any stress that is related to providing care for residents with dementia:

 

Take care of yourself
 

The golden rule of caring is a simple one: to put your health and wellness first. It’s vital that you take care of yourself first because if you don’t, you won’t be in a position to help others. It’s the same on airplanes, they ask you to put your oxygen mask on first before helping others, to ensure that you can continue to help others. When dealing with a caregiving challenge, it’s important to remember that you need to be aware of your own needs, both your physical and emotional ones. If you can’t cope alone, ask for help. There’s no shame in asking for help. 

 

Take every day as it comes
 

Remember that everyone has good days and bad days. If a resident is exhibiting a range of bad behaviours one day, it’s important not to feel defeated. Instead, what you can do is focus on determining what the cause of these behaviours is and how you can prevent the problem from occurring in the future. Maybe they’re irritable because they’re still hungry or perhaps their sleep was interrupted. By working out what the triggers are for these kinds of issues, you can help to avoid similar situations from occurring in the future. For each patient, it can be worth keeping a log of the things that impact them in a negative way, so that you have something to refer to when trying to pinpoint the cause of this kind of behaviour.

 

Learn constantly
 

One of the best things that you can do to help support your residents with dementia is to be willing to learn constantly. It’s important to continue learning so that you can gain more insight into what your residents are struggling with and how you can best deal with these issues. By taking the time to learn more about how dementia can impact a person’s behaviour and abilities, you can make it easier for yourself to come up with solutions to dealing with any dementia-related problems.

Caring for residents living with dementia is not an easy task, which is why it’s so important to understand the best methods of coping with them and their behaviours, to help alleviate stress for yourself and them.