What is your patient experiencing?
- Inability to initiate dressing or perform other self-care activities by themselves
What is causing it?
- Alzheimer’s can affect a person’s ability to understand language as well as to initiate an action, but they can often still do the task if shown how, i.e. prompts and cues
- Agitation may arise when the person feels they no longer have control over their lives and they are not able to take care of themselves in the way that they like
Advice for the Care Partner
- Use physical cues rather than verbal instructions to have a person brush their teeth
- Demonstrate slowly, step by step, how to brush his or her teeth, clean their dentures, brush their hair or shave
- Incorporate oral rinses with water or mouth wash if the person is not able to clean their teeth as thoroughly
- Help the person maintain their regular routine, reflecting all of their usual preferences with shaving, applying make-up, wearing jewelry, nail care and hair style
- Find out the person’s preferred schedule and adhere to it, for example, don’t bathe them in the morning if they usually take a shower in the evening
- Find out preferences such as water temperature for the shower, favorite soap, etc.
Information taken from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health
Reviewed by AlzOC September 2015 NIH November 2012
For more information, read: Grooming and Dressing from Alzheimer’s Orange County.