The Importance of Routine in Dementia Care

Dementia represents a global problem for people struggling with cognition, with new cases every three seconds worldwide and nearly 30,000 new diagnoses every day in America. As many as 6.9 million people 65 and older are coping with this debilitating illness, which over time makes every act of thinking, remembering, and generally functioning more difficult.

Treating dementia patients means providing them with a high quality of life, and routine plays a vital role in maintaining their well-being. To discover more about the importance of routine for this illness, we need to better understand dementia, how routine makes life easier, and what other complementary treatments can help care for those affected.

The team of doctors at Riverhills Neuroscience assists residents of Norwood, Anderson, and Westside, Ohio, and Crestview Hills, Kentucky, with dementia and many other neurological conditions.

Understanding dementia

It’s often considered comical to think of people struggling to remember something as having “senior moments” with mild cognitive decline, but dementia is not the natural result of your body getting on in years. It’s a severe descent into cognitive decline that damages your ability to perform basic functions, such as thinking, memory, language, behavior, and judgment.

Various illnesses cause dementia from the breakdown of brain cells (neurons), like vascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), Lewy body disease (LBD), severe brain trauma, substance abuse, human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV), Huntington’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.

The role of routine in dementia care

You have certain things you do every day, likely at the same time, without thinking about it. Once you become comfortable in a setting, many routines form, such as having a favorite morning drink, reading a newspaper or online site, and eating specific meals.

Dementia causes people to lose the familiar bit by bit, so creating an environment where they deal with the same thing all the time is both comforting and keeps them safe. A daily schedule for the patient and the caregiver helps everyone cope with the numerous challenges that this condition presents. 

Even in later stages when there is less awareness and little contact with others, the routine helps produce stability where none would be present.

Ways to incorporate it into care

Creating a sense of normalcy through routine can be achieved in many ways:

Personalized care plans

Every person copes with dementia differently, so your techniques for forming a bond and addressing their health needs should be tailored to each individual.

Using hobbies and activities

Knowing the types of things dementia patients enjoy doing makes it easier to incorporate them into regular activities, both to keep them engaged and enhance their quality of life.

Schedule flexibility

It might seem counterintuitive, but while a regimented schedule is essential overall, it’s important to offer different core activities at the same time of day to keep them interested. If they want to try something that can be managed safely, this is the time to do it.

Structuring family time

Seeing family can be a joyful experience, and letting everyone reconnect and reminisce (as much as possible) is both comforting and helps to strengthen bonds.

Dementia is a complex condition to manage, but routine makes life easier for the patient and caregiver. For ways to help dementia patients or people with other neurological problems, make an appointment with the Riverhills Neuroscience team today.