Why Dementia Behavior Doesn't Make Sense (Until You Look at the Senses)
Before you label another moment "just the dementia," ask the question that actually changes things: what is this person's brain actually taking in right now?
In this episode, Carlyn tells the story of a resident in long-term care who kept ending up on the floor, and the evaluation that turned up nothing: strong legs, steady balance, a normal gait. The falls didn't make sense until she started asking a different set of questions, not just how he was falling, but where and when. What she found in his room became the doorway into the first spoke of the Wheel of Function™: sensory function, and how much more it covers than most caregivers ever think to ask about.
The problem was never just about falls. Carlyn walks through why a person might suddenly refuse a shower, stop answering questions in a noisy room, or pull away from a familiar touch, and why each of those moments might be the brain's sensory system trying to communicate something the words can't. She traces the shift from asking "how do we stop this behavior" to asking "what is this person's brain actually seeing, hearing, and feeling right now," and why that one change opens up entirely different options for care.
In This Episode
The problem was never just about falls. Carlyn walks through why a person might suddenly refuse a shower, stop answering questions in a noisy room, or pull away from a familiar touch, and why each of those moments might be the brain's sensory system trying to communicate something the words can't. She traces the shift from asking "how do we stop this behavior" to asking "what is this person's brain actually seeing, hearing, and feeling right now," and why that one change opens up entirely different options for care.
In This Episode
- The evaluation that found nothing wrong
- What a maroon bedspread had to do with it
- Why "refusing" a shower might be a sensory response
- The question that turns behavior into a clue
- What's coming next in the series
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If this one hit close to home, follow the show so you catch what's next: another spoke of the Wheel of Function™, and how it connects to everything we covered today.
