14. Checklists & practical aids

Practical aids

Checklists for everyday practice

✔ Checklist: Communication in dementia

  • Approached from the front, at eye level, using their name, with eye contact?
  • Calm, simple, short sentences, one thing at a time, time given?
  • Supported non-verbally (facial expression, touch, calm tone)?
  • Validated (feelings accepted) rather than corrected?
  • Respectful (no baby talk)?

✔ Checklist: Challenging behaviour

  • Behaviour understood as communication/a need?
  • Cause looked for (pain!, fear, urge to urinate, being overwhelmed, environment)?
  • Sudden deterioration? → think of delirium, have it investigated!
  • Need met rather than sedated?
  • Responded calmly, in a de-escalating way?

✔ Checklist: Person-centred care & everyday life

  • Life history/preferences known and used?
  • Personhood strengthened (not hurt/patronised)?
  • Daily structure, rituals, meaningful activity (music!)?
  • Dementia-friendly environment (light, orientation, safe walkways)?
  • Basic care provided in a dementia-sensitive way (relationship, no coercion)?

✔ Checklist: Dignity & freedom

  • Self-determination/wishes respected (including non-verbal ones)?
  • Freedom-restricting measures (FEM) avoided – alternatives first?
  • Relatives involved and given relief?
  • Treated as a valuable person with dignity?

✔ Reminder card

  • Behaviour is communication – look for the cause, do not sedate.
  • Do not correct – validate (accept feelings).
  • The feeling remains – make every encounter dignified.
  • Relationship beats technique; no coercion.
  • Dignity remains to the very end – avoid FEM.

Conclusion

You have learnt how to support people with dementia in a person-centred and dignified way: understanding their world, communicating respectfully and using validation, interpreting challenging behaviour as an expression of a need, providing person-centred care that takes their life history into account, shaping everyday life and the milieu, supporting relatives and protecting dignity and freedom (avoiding FEM). The central message: people with dementia are and remain valuable, feeling persons with inviolable dignity – to the very end. Attitude matters more than any technique. Please now work through the self-reflection. All the best!