Dealing with Dementia Denial

You realize that your father is slowly forgetting even his most precious memories. However, you tell yourself that it’s just normal for his age, and he’s really alright even though you know deep down inside that he really isn’t. This is a form of “dementia denial” where you can’t accept that your loved one has a form of dementia. This can also lead to larger problems and even pose a risk to your loved one’s health. Below are some common risks dealing with dementia denial:

• Using denial to cope: By refusing to accept that your loved one is having issues, it can lead to bigger problems because you may not properly attend to his or her needs. Medications can be taken at the wrong time or not at all. The senior could forget to eat, bathe or take care of personal hygiene. Or even worse, wander off confused and lost.
• Accidents could happen more and more frequently: This can lead to falls. Bones could be broken, joints displaced and even hospitalization can occur. Also leaving people alone who are having memory problems, they could leave burners on causing deadly fires, burn themselves or eat food which has gone bad.
• By not realizing the dementia, it can cause problems within the family: The family members who deny there’s a problem can cause internal conflict within the family. This could prevent the use of preventive medications which could slow the progress of the disease. Also, if the loved one needs homecare, disagreement within the family could cause delayed care. The best course then is to have a family meeting soon after the diagnosis. The sooner all the family members realize that there’s a problem and that some type of homecare or skilled care may be needed, the less denial of the problem will affect the family relationships and the health of the dementia sufferer.
• Delaying the need for professional help can wear down the caregiver: Caring for a family member who has memory loss can be mentally, physically and emotionally draining. Family caregivers in denial put their own health at risk additionally by denying that help is needed. In addition, denial can also cause stress to the caregiver to the point where the caregiver becomes too sick to take care of the loved one. So family caregivers in denial put their own health at risk by denying that help is needed. Then the loved one will need to go into a skilled care perhaps even sooner than what would have happened eventually anyway.
• By not accepting the idea that your parent is having memory problems can cause legal issues: It can become difficult for the family members or caregiver if the financial power of attorney, the advance health directive and permission for adult children in writing to see health records are not done. Additionally, without the proper legal forms, property matters and inheritance can become an issue. Most importantly, without all these papers filled out properly, getting the needed authorization for medical procedures can become difficult.
• There could be financial issues: Your family member may spend money that is needed elsewhere and could be exploited financially by an unscrupulous person or a scam artist. As an example, you may find that your loved one has been donating to every charity which calls. Or, your senior could be having a lowlife contractor doing repairs at a fantastic price, or doing repair jobs unneeded that are complete rip-off’s.

When your family member starts to show signs of dementia, denial doesn’t help anyone.