Navigating Dementia

Before you label another moment "just agitation" or "a behavior problem," ask the question that actually changes things: what might this person be feeling right now?

In this episode, Carlyn tells the story of a resident in long-term care who kept ending up on the floor, not from a stumble, not from a lost transfer, just a sudden trip to the floor, usually right after a loud noise. No reaching, no sliding, no lost balance, nothing about it looked like a normal fall. The pattern didn't make sense until Carlyn learned what was underneath it: a man with severe PTSD, taking cover from a sound only he could really hear. What started as a mystery about falls became the doorway into the second spoke of the Wheel of Function™: emotional function, and how much of dementia behavior is actually emotion wearing a different name.

The problem was never just about the falls, or the anger, or the shower that got refused. Carlyn walks through why a mom might pull away from a shower, why a dad might insist he has to get home to a mother who's been gone for twenty years, and why "leave me alone" might be less about agitation and more about a very human need for control. She traces the shift from asking "how do we stop this behavior" to asking "what might this person be feeling right now," and why that one change opens up entirely different options for care.

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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.