Our mother is still living at home, but me and my sister are having a lot of trouble coaxing her into the bath. A carer comes twice a day but they don't even try to get her to wash. She's incredibly stubborn and aggressive about it, but surely this is another Alzheimers symptom which the professionals must be trained to deal with? .
What are other people's experiences with professional help with this?
I Do feel for you
From my own personal experience ...
when I had carers coming to my house to help me change my mother into her evening PJs have a wash down
They where never trained in how to wash a person with dementia or not with challenging behaviours in washing .
Aggression is a normal reaction because it’s a sigh that the person can not express communicate themselves Verbally.
In something they are feeling so act out in aggression.
When I notice a smell coming from my mother I just new she was not washing herself properly .
My daughters would also comment about it also
So I ask her if she did not mind showing me how she washes herself.
I just stood back .
My mother was at the stage that her memory went back in the days that we never had a bath in our house .
So mum would wash herself in a bowl in the sink .
Back into the present moment of time At our house while mum was living with us she would use bathroom sink .
So mum was having a wash down .
When mum showed me how she was washes her top half of herself she lifted her breasts up I notice underneath her breast where red raw.
so mum was not drying herself properly
That was where the smell was coming from .
I can put myself in my mother shoes also anyone else that needs help with washing .
Can imagine how humillating it must feel like.
if a person can not communicated that feeling or the person is not getting acknowledgement of that feeling back from the person like I said before you're going to get aggression.
So rather then helping talking over a person needs to wash themselves its more about promting them letting them do it themselves so they can keep their dignity .
which can be done with
Person-Centred Approach
Learning that skill help me prompt , motivate my mother to wash herslef even get into the bath till she was physically able to .
We ended up getting wet room .
I learn never to put a shower head over my mother head to wash her hair .
I had to tilt her head back .