Effective Strategies and Techniques Every Dementia Caregiver Needs to Know - Encore

Lisa Skinner: 00:00:00

Welcome back everybody to another new episode

Lisa Skinner: 00:00:03

of the truth lies and Alzheimer's Show. I'm your host,

Lisa Skinner: 00:00:07

Lisa Skinner, and today I want to share with you some more case

Lisa Skinner: 00:00:15

studies that highlight various behavioral challenges in people

Lisa Skinner: 00:00:21

living with Alzheimer's disease and dementia, and then give you

Lisa Skinner: 00:00:26

effective strategies in case these situations arise. Now, one

Lisa Skinner: 00:00:32

of the things I want to emphasize, and I've mentioned

Lisa Skinner: 00:00:36

this many, many times before, on other episodes of the truth,

Lisa Skinner: 00:00:42

lies and Alzheimer's show is some of the strategies and the

Lisa Skinner: 00:00:50

techniques that I offer and share with you don't necessarily

Lisa Skinner: 00:00:59

work for every given situation. And this is why I can't

Lisa Skinner: 00:01:05

overstate that we all need to assemble a really strong

Lisa Skinner: 00:01:12

toolbox, because what will happen is I'll give you a

Lisa Skinner: 00:01:19

suggested strategy for a situation that comes up. You

Lisa Skinner: 00:01:25

might try it sometimes, and it'll work beautifully and

Lisa Skinner: 00:01:30

diffuse the situation from escalating any further, but

Lisa Skinner: 00:01:34

other times it just won't. We're dealing with human beings here,

Lisa Skinner: 00:01:41

and they have their good days and their bad days, just like

Lisa Skinner: 00:01:46

the rest of us. So what might be effective in one situation, if

Lisa Skinner: 00:01:52

that same exact scenario happens again, and you try the technique

Lisa Skinner: 00:01:58

I share with you, it just might not work that time. So the goal

Lisa Skinner: 00:02:05

here is to give you enough strategies that if something

Lisa Skinner: 00:02:13

doesn't work, you have other tools to choose from that are

Lisa Skinner: 00:02:19

already within your toolbox. And of course, you know it stands to

Lisa Skinner: 00:02:25

reason that the more of these tools you have to pull from, the

Lisa Skinner: 00:02:30

better chances you have of diffusing any given situation.

Lisa Skinner: 00:02:34

That's the entire goal here is to just be equipped and prepared

Lisa Skinner: 00:02:41

as best you can, because these situations can prove to be very

Lisa Skinner: 00:02:47

difficult, and part of the reason is is that not every

Lisa Skinner: 00:02:54

solution will always work in any given situation. So here is a

Lisa Skinner: 00:03:03

case study that the woman suffers from emotional

Lisa Skinner: 00:03:10

outbursts. And last time I presented this case study

Lisa Skinner: 00:03:16

episode, I mentioned that these are all true stories of things

Lisa Skinner: 00:03:22

that actually do come up on a day to day basis at any given

Lisa Skinner: 00:03:27

time, unexpectedly. Not really sure what the trigger was. They

Lisa Skinner: 00:03:34

just these behaviors just show up out of the blue. And so this

Lisa Skinner: 00:03:40

woman, I'll call her ETHEL. She's 81 years old, and she is

Lisa Skinner: 00:03:47

in moderate stage of Alzheimer's disease. And the challenge here

Lisa Skinner: 00:03:53

is she experienced a sudden emotional outburst, often crying

Lisa Skinner: 00:04:00

or becoming angry over minor frustrations, which leaves her

Lisa Skinner: 00:04:05

caregiver unsure how to respond. And she does this frequently. So

Lisa Skinner: 00:04:12

here are some intervention strategies for this particular

Lisa Skinner: 00:04:16

situation, if it happens to you. So one of the things that we'll

Lisa Skinner: 00:04:23

need to pay attention to and focus on is identify, try to

Lisa Skinner: 00:04:29

identify what triggered that sudden emotional outburst. It

Lisa Skinner: 00:04:36

could be one of many, many, many things. So what I recommend is

Lisa Skinner: 00:04:42

that you as a family member or you as a caregiver, start

Lisa Skinner: 00:04:47

keeping a journal to track when and why emotion these emotional

Lisa Skinner: 00:04:53

outbursts occur, identify specific triggers, such as

Lisa Skinner: 00:04:57

changes in routine or. Unmet needs. And this will be a little

Lisa Skinner: 00:05:06

challenging at first, until you start to recognize patterns of

Lisa Skinner: 00:05:13

what sets off the person sets the person off, displaying

Lisa Skinner: 00:05:18

whatever the behavior might be. And in this case, it's an

Lisa Skinner: 00:05:21

emotional outburst. And then once you start seeing patterns,

Lisa Skinner: 00:05:27

it'll be easier as time goes on to you know, if that emotional

Lisa Skinner: 00:05:33

outburst happens and go, Oh, this triggered it last time,

Lisa Skinner: 00:05:38

maybe it's the same thing today, but you're going to have to go

Lisa Skinner: 00:05:42

through a process of elimination to kind of dial that in. So

Lisa Skinner: 00:05:52

first and foremost, as a caregiver, you definitely want

Lisa Skinner: 00:05:56

to offer comfort to Ethel or your person through gentle

Lisa Skinner: 00:06:05

touches and reassuring words and validate those feelings during

Lisa Skinner: 00:06:16

the Episode activities like listening to soothing music or

Lisa Skinner: 00:06:21

gardening, were introduced to Ethel so she would be able to

Lisa Skinner: 00:06:27

express her emotions in a healthier way, and then the

Lisa Skinner: 00:06:33

outcome, hopefully for you, will be similar to this one, because

Lisa Skinner: 00:06:40

by understanding triggers and providing emotional support, the

Lisa Skinner: 00:06:45

frequency of Ethel's outbursts actually decreased, leading to a

Lisa Skinner: 00:06:50

much more peaceful environment and positive outcome for both

Lisa Skinner: 00:06:57

Ethel and her caregiver. So this case study is a sample or an

Lisa Skinner: 00:07:05

example of a person with vascular dementia. He's 874,

Lisa Skinner: 00:07:14

years old, and he just has lost interest in doing any

Lisa Skinner: 00:07:22

activities. His name's Joe. So Joe was once an avid golfer and

Lisa Skinner: 00:07:31

socializer, but he started to show disinterest in activities

Lisa Skinner: 00:07:37

that he previously enjoyed, leading to social isolation. So

Lisa Skinner: 00:07:45

some intervention strategies for this situation include

Lisa Skinner: 00:07:49

reintroducing the activities his caregiver gradually reintroduced

Lisa Skinner: 00:07:55

Joe to golf by visiting the driving range, allowing him to

Lisa Skinner: 00:08:01

engage without the pressure of a full game. Now, this gentleman

Lisa Skinner: 00:08:08

had vascular dementia, if the caregivers taking him to a golf

Lisa Skinner: 00:08:14

course to the driving range, he's probably early on with his

Lisa Skinner: 00:08:21

cognitive impairments. But this is just an example of an

Lisa Skinner: 00:08:28

intervention that worked, and you can modify it to the stage

Lisa Skinner: 00:08:33

that the person you care for is in at the time they organize

Lisa Skinner: 00:08:39

small gatherings with friends from the golf club, providing

Lisa Skinner: 00:08:44

familiar social interactions that did spark his interest or

Lisa Skinner: 00:08:49

renewed interest, and then exploring new activities such as

Lisa Skinner: 00:08:55

painting or puzzles helped Joe discover New interests that he

Lisa Skinner: 00:09:00

could enjoy at his own pace, and that is an operative statement.

Lisa Skinner: 00:09:07

At his own pace, he just doesn't have the cognitive abilities

Lisa Skinner: 00:09:12

that he once had, and sometimes we forget that about our people

Lisa Skinner: 00:09:19

that we care for so we have to meet them where they are in

Lisa Skinner: 00:09:25

their stage. So the outcome for Joe was with gentle

Lisa Skinner: 00:09:31

encouragement and social support, Joe did begin to

Lisa Skinner: 00:09:36

participate in activities, again, significantly enhancing

Lisa Skinner: 00:09:41

his mood and reducing his feelings of isolation, which is

Lisa Skinner: 00:09:47

so incredibly important for people living with dementia.

Lisa Skinner: 00:09:54

The next story, the scenario is difficulty with personal care.

Lisa Skinner: 00:10:00

Care, and we see this a lot in people living with Alzheimer's

Lisa Skinner: 00:10:05

disease and dementia. And this lady, Sarah, she's 79 years old,

Lisa Skinner: 00:10:11

and she's just in her early stage of Alzheimer's disease,

Lisa Skinner: 00:10:16

but the behavioral challenge is that Sarah resisted assistance

Lisa Skinner: 00:10:23

with personal care tasks such as bathing and dressing, leading to

Lisa Skinner: 00:10:29

hygiene issues and caregiver frustration. So a great

Lisa Skinner: 00:10:36

intervention strategy. And I have seen this work over and

Lisa Skinner: 00:10:41

over and over again, and I've actually talked about it pretty

Lisa Skinner: 00:10:44

frequently, is creating a regular routine, a consistent

Lisa Skinner: 00:10:54

daily routine was established For Sarah, incorporating

Lisa Skinner: 00:10:58

personal task care tasks at the same time each day to foster

Lisa Skinner: 00:11:06

predictability, and this is such an important approach to people

Lisa Skinner: 00:11:13

with cognitive impairment, because they thrive on

Lisa Skinner: 00:11:18

familiarity, and a routine represents familiarity. So

Lisa Skinner: 00:11:24

really important to to incorporate a consistent daily

Lisa Skinner: 00:11:28

routine. But what the kid what her caregivers did was they

Lisa Skinner: 00:11:35

offered her choices in clothing and grooming products, which

Lisa Skinner: 00:11:40

ended up empowering her and ultimately reduced her

Lisa Skinner: 00:11:45

resistance. It gave her back a little bit of her independence,

Lisa Skinner: 00:11:50

and felt like she had a say in things. And then they praised

Lisa Skinner: 00:11:55

Sarah for her cooperation and independence during personal

Lisa Skinner: 00:12:00

care, which reinforced positive behavior. So the outcome for

Lisa Skinner: 00:12:07

Sarah was with a structured routine and choices, she became

Lisa Skinner: 00:12:14

more willing to engage in personal care, improving her her

Lisa Skinner: 00:12:19

hygiene and overall well being. Is that going to work every

Lisa Skinner: 00:12:23

single time somebody becomes resistant to wanting to take a

Lisa Skinner: 00:12:26

bath or a shower, get dressed or brush their teeth or all the

Lisa Skinner: 00:12:30

other personal hygiene services we provide for the people we're

Lisa Skinner: 00:12:37

taking care of no but this is a fundamental, proven technique

Lisa Skinner: 00:12:43

that has shown to work, but you might need to have a few other

Lisa Skinner: 00:12:49

strategies and techniques in your toolbox to pull out if that

Lisa Skinner: 00:12:55

doesn't work in at any given time. Michael is a 77 year old

Lisa Skinner: 00:13:03

man with Alzheimer's disease in his moderate stage, and the

Lisa Skinner: 00:13:10

behavioral challenge here was due to his cognitive decline and

Lisa Skinner: 00:13:17

his frequent forgetfulness. Now Michael routinely and frequently

Lisa Skinner: 00:13:27

forgot names of family members and significant events, and that

Lisa Skinner: 00:13:33

led to tremendous frustration and embarrassment during family

Lisa Skinner: 00:13:39

gatherings. So the caregiver, their intervention strategy for

Lisa Skinner: 00:13:45

this particular episode, created a memory book filled with photos

Lisa Skinner: 00:13:53

and names of his family members, along with significant events

Lisa Skinner: 00:13:59

for Michael to reference, gave gentle reminders about family

Lisa Skinner: 00:14:04

members and events during conversations, using cues to jog

Lisa Skinner: 00:14:09

his memory, and it was effective. Then they encouraged

Lisa Skinner: 00:14:18

Michael to share stories about his life, and this helped

Lisa Skinner: 00:14:22

reinforce connections with his family, allowing for cognitive

Lisa Skinner: 00:14:28

engagement, and that's an ultimate goal for us. The

Lisa Skinner: 00:14:33

outcome for Michael was in using these memory aids and

Lisa Skinner: 00:14:37

storytelling not only helped him remember his family members

Lisa Skinner: 00:14:42

better, but also strengthened his emotional connections with

Lisa Skinner: 00:14:47

them. This lady, she's 80 years old, and she has Lewy body

Lisa Skinner: 00:14:54

dementia, and she has been having some. Some reactions to

Lisa Skinner: 00:15:02

medications that she's on. So the behavioral challenge was in

Lisa Skinner: 00:15:09

that she was having paradoxical reactions to certain

Lisa Skinner: 00:15:13

medications, which stands to reason why she had was showing

Lisa Skinner: 00:15:19

and displaying increased agitation and anxiety instead of

Lisa Skinner: 00:15:24

relief. So what that caregiver did was monitor these negative

Lisa Skinner: 00:15:32

reactions by maintaining detailed notes on every time she

Lisa Skinner: 00:15:38

was given the medication and the reaction that followed, and then

Lisa Skinner: 00:15:42

shared this information with her health care provider. The

Lisa Skinner: 00:15:49

caregiver, worked closely with health care professionals to

Lisa Skinner: 00:15:52

adjust her dosages and switch medications, finding

Lisa Skinner: 00:15:57

alternatives that better suited her needs. And then by trying

Lisa Skinner: 00:16:05

some different holistic approaches versus pharmaceutical

Lisa Skinner: 00:16:11

approaches, and she tried aromatherapy and relaxation

Lisa Skinner: 00:16:16

techniques like hand massages, those were introduced to help

Lisa Skinner: 00:16:21

manage her anxiety without relying solely on medication. So

Lisa Skinner: 00:16:29

the outcome for in this scenario was through careful monitoring

Lisa Skinner: 00:16:34

and collaboration with this woman's health care providers,

Lisa Skinner: 00:16:39

her medication regimen was optimized, leading to decreased

Lisa Skinner: 00:16:45

agitation and improved overall well being. Here is a study that

Lisa Skinner: 00:16:55

looks at or case scenario that looks at compulsive behaviors,

Lisa Skinner: 00:17:02

which happen a lot. This is Steve. He's 82 years old, and he

Lisa Skinner: 00:17:11

has Frontotemporal dementia. And if you don't, if you're not

Lisa Skinner: 00:17:18

aware, Frontotemporal dementia is the brain disease that

Lisa Skinner: 00:17:23

attacks the temporal lobe of our brain, which is in the front

Lisa Skinner: 00:17:27

part of our head, and it really will impact our emotions, our

Lisa Skinner: 00:17:37

thought processes, our ability to reason situations out, and in

Lisa Skinner: 00:17:46

most cases, in a lot of cases of Frontotemporal dementia, the

Lisa Skinner: 00:17:51

person ends up reacting on pure, raw emotion because they've lost

Lisa Skinner: 00:17:59

a lot of the ability to differentiate between a big deal

Lisa Skinner: 00:18:03

and something that's not that big a deal, like we do when we

Lisa Skinner: 00:18:07

have a healthy brain, everything tends to be a big deal to them

Lisa Skinner: 00:18:12

in a lot of situations. So Steve developed compulsive behavior,

Lisa Skinner: 00:18:19

and some of the things that he was doing was he was repeatedly

Lisa Skinner: 00:18:23

checking doors and windows, which of course, created

Lisa Skinner: 00:18:29

distress for both himself and his caregivers. So the

Lisa Skinner: 00:18:35

intervention strategy that his caregivers try was to offer a

Lisa Skinner: 00:18:42

structured routine, which again is a consistent daily routine

Lisa Skinner: 00:18:49

established to provide structure. It worked in this

Lisa Skinner: 00:18:54

particular behavioral situation, and it actually ended up

Lisa Skinner: 00:18:58

reducing his need for compulsive checking behaviors, the

Lisa Skinner: 00:19:03

caregivers provided reassurance that the doors and the windows

Lisa Skinner: 00:19:09

were secure and that reduced his anxiety related to his safety,

Lisa Skinner: 00:19:15

He was concerned about his safety

Lisa Skinner: 00:19:20

when these compulsive behaviors do emerge, caregivers redirected

Lisa Skinner: 00:19:28

Steve to engaging activities such as playing cards or doing

Lisa Skinner: 00:19:33

puzzles to get his mind on something else. And the outcome

Lisa Skinner: 00:19:38

for Steve with the interventions that his caregivers implemented

Lisa Skinner: 00:19:44

was with a structured routine and reassurance Steve's

Lisa Skinner: 00:19:49

compulsive behaviors were minimized, leading to a much

Lisa Skinner: 00:19:54

calmer environment. So again, flexing a. Variety of tools to

Lisa Skinner: 00:20:02

assemble in your toolbox that any of these situations, if they

Lisa Skinner: 00:20:08

might arise, and the chances that they will are pretty good,

Lisa Skinner: 00:20:12

you have more than one option to try to try to diffuse the

Lisa Skinner: 00:20:17

situation. So let me give you a few more. This one happens

Lisa Skinner: 00:20:24

frequently, and this woman, her name's Joan. I'll call her Joan.

Lisa Skinner: 00:20:31

She's 78 and she suffers from incontinence, and as a result,

Lisa Skinner: 00:20:40

extreme embarrassment, which is understandable. She's aware

Lisa Skinner: 00:20:46

she's incontinent, and she's in the moderate stage of

Lisa Skinner: 00:20:49

Alzheimer's disease. And what happened to Joan is she began

Lisa Skinner: 00:20:55

experiencing incontinence, leading to feel feelings of

Lisa Skinner: 00:21:00

embarrassment and reluctance to participate in social

Lisa Skinner: 00:21:04

activities. So what the caregivers did for her was they

Lisa Skinner: 00:21:11

established a regular bathroom schedule and encouraged Joan to

Lisa Skinner: 00:21:17

use the restroom at set times, which ultimately reduced the

Lisa Skinner: 00:21:22

frequency of accidents. The caregivers also provided

Lisa Skinner: 00:21:28

discreet and comfortable incontinence products, which

Lisa Skinner: 00:21:32

helped Joan feel more secure during outings, and also

Lisa Skinner: 00:21:37

reassured her that incontinence is common in people living with

Lisa Skinner: 00:21:44

dementia, encouraging her to participate in social activities

Lisa Skinner: 00:21:48

without fear of embarrassment. So the outcome for Joan was

Lisa Skinner: 00:21:54

positive. So by engaging or implementing a consistent

Lisa Skinner: 00:22:00

schedule and supportive products, Joan felt much more

Lisa Skinner: 00:22:04

confident and engaged socially, experiencing fewer accidents and

Lisa Skinner: 00:22:10

a greater enjoyment in participating in activities. She

Lisa Skinner: 00:22:16

wasn't just completely overwhelmed with the worry of,

Lisa Skinner: 00:22:23

am I going to have an accident? I've seen this strategy used so

Lisa Skinner: 00:22:27

many times in care homes where people who do have incontinence

Lisa Skinner: 00:22:33

problems are put on a toileting schedule. And it's effective. So

Lisa Skinner: 00:22:39

that's one thing that y'all can try. Adam is an 83 year old man,

Lisa Skinner: 00:22:46

and he lives with vascular dementia, so he's had strokes or

Lisa Skinner: 00:22:51

mini strokes, and his behavioral challenge is that he is often

Lisa Skinner: 00:22:59

fixated on past events frequently reliving memories of

Lisa Skinner: 00:23:04

his military service, which sometimes leads to distressing

Lisa Skinner: 00:23:10

emotions for him. So the intervention strategy that

Lisa Skinner: 00:23:16

worked for Adam was that the caregivers facilitated

Lisa Skinner: 00:23:23

discussions about Adam's military experiences. This is

Lisa Skinner: 00:23:29

called memory sharing, allowing him to express his feelings and

Lisa Skinner: 00:23:34

thoughts by talking about his military experiences and

Lisa Skinner: 00:23:41

processing those feelings and thoughts, then they created a

Lisa Skinner: 00:23:46

Memory Box, which contained photos and memorabilia from his

Lisa Skinner: 00:23:51

service in the military, which provided for Adam a tangible way

Lisa Skinner: 00:23:58

to engage with his past positively when fixation leads

Lisa Skinner: 00:24:05

to distress, caregivers can gently redirect conversations to

Lisa Skinner: 00:24:11

more current topics or activities that the person has

Lisa Skinner: 00:24:16

enjoyed, and the outcome For Adam was by allowing him to

Lisa Skinner: 00:24:21

share his memories in a supportive environment, the

Lisa Skinner: 00:24:26

caregivers helped him process his emotions, leading to

Lisa Skinner: 00:24:31

reduction in distressing fixations. The next example is

Lisa Skinner: 00:24:40

in displaying anger and frustration. And this is Lola.

Lisa Skinner: 00:24:49

She's 78 years old, and she's in her early stage of Alzheimer's

Lisa Skinner: 00:24:54

disease. And what Lola was displaying. Is expressed anger

Lisa Skinner: 00:25:03

and frustration, particularly when a task became overwhelming

Lisa Skinner: 00:25:10

or challenging, impacting her interactions with her

Lisa Skinner: 00:25:15

caregivers. So their intervention strategy was to

Lisa Skinner: 00:25:20

provide supportive, empathy and patience, invalidating her

Lisa Skinner: 00:25:27

feelings, and this is important, without dismissing them, they

Lisa Skinner: 00:25:34

validated them, they acknowledged they understood

Lisa Skinner: 00:25:37

what she was feeling and why she was feeling the way she was

Lisa Skinner: 00:25:40

feeling. Then they broke her tasks down into smaller,

Lisa Skinner: 00:25:47

manageable steps, providing assistance as needed, to reduce

Lisa Skinner: 00:25:52

frustration during during daily activities, and that worked for

Lisa Skinner: 00:25:57

Lola. Then they praised Lola for her efforts and successes, no

Lisa Skinner: 00:26:04

matter how small they were, which boosted her confidence and

Lisa Skinner: 00:26:09

her motivation. So in this scenario, the outcome was with

Lisa Skinner: 00:26:16

placing these supportive strategies in putting them in

Lisa Skinner: 00:26:21

place, Lola's outburst of anger decreased, and she actually

Lisa Skinner: 00:26:27

became more willing to engage in daily tasks with a positive

Lisa Skinner: 00:26:33

attitude, because the way they went about structuring the tasks

Lisa Skinner: 00:26:40

lifted her concern of failing, which just is a constant

Lisa Skinner: 00:26:47

reminder of her cognitive challenges. So that was

Lisa Skinner: 00:26:52

effective. This gentleman named Clark, he's 80 years old, and he

Lisa Skinner: 00:27:01

also lives with Frontotemporal dementia, and he socially

Lisa Skinner: 00:27:07

withdrew as a result of the impact that the brain disease

Lisa Skinner: 00:27:15

was having on The temporal lobe of his brain. He became

Lisa Skinner: 00:27:20

completely withdrawn. He preferred to isolate himself

Lisa Skinner: 00:27:24

rather than engage with family or friends. So the caregivers,

Lisa Skinner: 00:27:30

what they did for him was he, they personally invited him to

Lisa Skinner: 00:27:36

small family gatherings, emphasizing the importance of

Lisa Skinner: 00:27:40

His presence and the enjoyment of his company, that's sweet.

Lisa Skinner: 00:27:46

Then they planned activities that align with his interests,

Lisa Skinner: 00:27:53

such as gardening or watching sports, to encourage his

Lisa Skinner: 00:27:57

participation. The caregivers then facilitated connections

Lisa Skinner: 00:28:03

with familiar faces, ensuring that interactions were

Lisa Skinner: 00:28:07

comfortable and enjoyable to Clark. So the outcome in this

Lisa Skinner: 00:28:15

example was it gradually, Clark began to engage more with his

Lisa Skinner: 00:28:20

family and friends, thus reducing his feelings of

Lisa Skinner: 00:28:24

isolation and enhancing his overall quality of life. I'm

Lisa Skinner: 00:28:32

going to share one more with you. This is a little unusual,

Lisa Skinner: 00:28:38

but it does happen. I've seen it myself. And this woman, I'm

Lisa Skinner: 00:28:45

going to call her Emily, she's 82 years old, and she suffers

Lisa Skinner: 00:28:51

from Alzheimer's disease, and her behavioral expression is in

Lisa Skinner: 00:28:59

overeating and compulsive eating. That's what she

Lisa Skinner: 00:29:05

exhibited, compulsive eating behaviors, often consuming

Lisa Skinner: 00:29:10

excessive amounts of food and then becoming angry and

Lisa Skinner: 00:29:16

irritable and distressed if she was denied the food.

Lisa Skinner: 00:29:21

So the intervention strategy for her was to implement structured

Lisa Skinner: 00:29:27

meal times, establish regular meal and snack times to create a

Lisa Skinner: 00:29:34

predictable eating schedule, helping to manage her cravings.

Lisa Skinner: 00:29:41

They made healthy snacks readily available for her, and they also

Lisa Skinner: 00:29:47

allowed her to snack between meals without over indulging. So

Lisa Skinner: 00:29:57

the other strategy they used was. Is they involved her in

Lisa Skinner: 00:30:03

meal preparation by providing her with a sense of purpose and

Lisa Skinner: 00:30:07

distraction from her compulsive eating habits. I've seen this

Lisa Skinner: 00:30:13

implemented so many times, and it's it's very effective. So the

Lisa Skinner: 00:30:18

outcome for her was with these structured meal times and

Lisa Skinner: 00:30:23

healthier options, her overeating and compulsive

Lisa Skinner: 00:30:28

behaviors decreased, which for her, promoted better nutrition

Lisa Skinner: 00:30:35

and better overall health. Seems like she was afraid that if she

Lisa Skinner: 00:30:42

didn't eat something and indulge in it, then that was probably

Lisa Skinner: 00:30:49

the last meal she might ever get. And with the strategies

Lisa Skinner: 00:30:53

they implemented, she realized there would always be food for

Lisa Skinner: 00:30:56

her, and it kind of, you know, helped with those behavioral

Lisa Skinner: 00:31:01

expressions. So I don't want to overwhelm you by giving you too

Lisa Skinner: 00:31:07

many tools and too many strategies. It's a lot to

Lisa Skinner: 00:31:12

digest, but I'm going to continue providing these for

Lisa Skinner: 00:31:17

you, so eventually you will have an arsenal of tools in your

Lisa Skinner: 00:31:23

toolbox to use when these situations arise. So that'll be

Lisa Skinner: 00:31:31

our episode for the truth, lies and Alzheimer's today. I'm Lisa

Lisa Skinner: 00:31:37

Skinner, your host, and I want to take a moment to thank

Lisa Skinner: 00:31:44

everybody for spending part of your day with me. And as always,

Lisa Skinner: 00:31:54

I look forward to having you back for next week's episode of

Lisa Skinner: 00:31:57

the truth lies and Alzheimer's show. So till then, I'm Lisa

Lisa Skinner: 00:32:01

Skinner, your host, and I hope you all have a wonderful and

Lisa Skinner: 00:32:09

positive and blessed week. See you next week, bye, bye.