I had one resident that was normally very sweet, but at times she had nightmares that caused violent outbursts.
Calming her down during one of these episodes was never easy and took a lot of time. Often it took time that others did not want to dedicate to her. There have been numerous times when I spent a good hour or more working to calm her down.
So how do you calm down an Alzheimer’s patient that has a violent outbursts?
- Remember that often it is the disease and not the individual
Finding the window to help Alzheimer’s deal with their reality - Understand the history and background of the person. In this case, we knew the traumatic event from her youth that triggered these outbursts.
- Redirect the individual as much as possible
- Don’t argue with the person
- Allow the individual to talk about the incident if possible and necessary. You don’t want to agitate him/her more.
- Beware of triggers. Keep a record of events before these outbursts. Is there a certain person, incident, time of day, etc. that triggers these outbursts? By tracking any triggers you can work to eliminate them.
- Remain calm and don’t take it personally
- If nothing else works and the person is in a safe place and not a danger to his/her self, sometimes the best thing is to leave him/her alone {even if you watch over him/her from another room} to come down
- Music is often a great way to calm an individual
- Pray and quote scripture together or over the person.
I used all of these techniques and in time I was able to calm this sweet lady back and see her return to her normal self. What works with one person may not always work with another, but in my personal experience I found that singing and then praying together were the most calming tools I could use.
Of course, I had to talk with her until she was calm enough to sing and pray with.
How do you calm an individual that has violent outbursts?