How can people with dementia live safely in society?

Created: 2022-08-02 2:43 p.m

By: Catherine Hauser

Doris Kettner (left) and Petra Stragies (right) are chairmen of the “Alzheimer Gesellschaft Lechrain”.

© Gronau

Hohenpeissenberg/Peißenberg – The fact that Waltraud Resch, who was suffering from dementia, disappeared from a retirement home in Dießen on March 6, 2021, moved many people in the district.

A conversation about how people with dementia can live safely in society, with Doris Kettner (chair) and Petra Stragies (co-chair) of the "Alzheimer Gesellschaft Lechrain" based in Hohenpeissenberg.

Do we need to lock up our dementia sufferers to keep them safe?

Stragies: That is normal thinking and of course when dealing with people suffering from dementia we always move in the field of tension between imprisoning and protecting.

The sociologist, theologian and jurist Professor Dr.

Thomas Klie speaks of a right to dementia.

He demands that we all work on ourselves so that people with dementia can live protected between us.

Kettner: The task of caring for a person with dementia cannot be delegated to a single person or a small number of people.

You can only do that as a group.

At the moment, the families of someone with dementia bear it.

But it is the task of society as a whole.

And we have to face up to this task because the number of people suffering from dementia is increasing.

Stragies: And most of them are probably even less cagey than the generation is now.

What do you mean?

Kettner: Many have lived a completely free life and it will be a huge social challenge to do justice to these people when they grow old and suffer from dementia.

Ultimately, this means that you have to get the whole of society on board.

Stragies: One of the ways in which this should succeed is that everyone in our society is trained.

In every area of ​​life, people should be able to deal with dementia patients.

The bank employee, the fireman, the salesman, they should all know their way around and be careful.

In the 90-minute courses, basic knowledge and the correct way to deal with people suffering from dementia are brought closer.

And it should be achieved that the trained go through life with open eyes and alert senses.

that you have to pay attention

Is this also intended to ensure that people with dementia can live more safely in society?

Kettner: Ideally, yes.

If everyone is trained and attentive, then people with dementia are better protected.

Ultimately, we all need our attention.

We have to see what is happening around us.

And when we see someone who we think needs our help or protection, we need to let those around us know.

Don't just say nothing out of shame.

This can be dangerous for those who are affected.

What do you think of the technical possibilities that are now available for people with dementia?

Stragies: There are great things like GPS trackers.

Today, technology no longer fails because someone can no longer be found.

The technology can make life much easier for relatives and people with dementia.

Kettner: I know of the daughter of a dementia patient from the district whose father now wears a GPS tracker.

She always knows where her father is.

That's progress.

Stragies: You can't stop someone with dementia who wants to run away.

Often there is also a great urge to move behind it.

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What other tips do you have on how to better protect people with dementia?

Stragies: It makes a lot of sense, for example, to inform the neighborhood about the disease.

So that she is attentive.

And you should get help as soon as possible.

Then the course of the disease can still be influenced.

We take care of relatives and sick people.

Kettner: What we keep hearing is that people with dementia are brought too late to a retirement home or to a dementia ward or to a dementia shared flat.

The greater the confusion, the more difficult it is to find your way around.

But there is still a lot of shyness and blinders when it comes to symptoms of dementia.

This is a topic that people like to push away.

Strategies: Older couples in particular are often so calibrated that nothing is allowed to leak out.

That they stick together and ultimately want to settle the whole issue with themselves.

Is there a recipe for dealing with people with dementia that applies to everyone?

KETTNER: No.

Every course of the disease is individual, every patient is an individual.

And his individuality will become even greater as the illness progresses.

It is necessary to focus on the individual.

Strategies: There is no rule of thumb.

You have to adapt to each individual person.

Kettner: But it is clear that there must be more relatives.

Unfortunately, it is still often the case that friends and people close by turn away when dementia becomes apparent.