We’ve been working with a gentleman who recently began worrying in the afternoon that he needed to get to his job, and that he had a ton of things he needed to do that day. Sound familiar? This sort of behavior can be awfully difficult to redirect, since he is focused on the tasks he believes he needs to accomplish. And, it is compounded with the notion that he spent all day playing games and needs to play catch-up.
If you’ve been working with dementia, I’m sure you’ve heard that often a person’s thinking reverts to an earlier period in their life. Hopefully, it was a nice period that they feel comfortable in. Sometimes, if a person’s early life was rather difficult, this symptom of dementia can be hard to live with.
In trying to help our gentleman we employ a few different strategies. First, we try reassurance. I tell him that he had the day off or that all his work is taken care of. We also try to pre-empt his sudden realization he should be at work by playing cards or dice games beforehand. Inevitably, he looks at his watch and sees the day is almost over and starts to worry. So, we may try to redirect him with an activity or take him on a walk to the restroom to take his mind off of it. Usually between these methods we could keep him stable.
