Sweet Basil Senior Care, LLC

11/23/2025

Rationalizing or arguing with a person living with dementia is usually a waste of your precious energy.

Instead, pivot and try again later using different words or an "angle" that makes sense to them.

Example: Instead of saying, "you haven't showered in weeks", try "let's freshen up before we visit the neighbors today."

11/21/2025

Hospice is often underutilized with many patients only receiving a few days or weeks of care when they are eligible for much more support.

11/18/2025

Find more tips like this in Making Peace with Dementia: An Occupational Therapist's Formula for Optimizing Care and Restoring Calm.

Link in bio.

11/17/2025

This is a good tip to keep in mind as the holidays approach. 💚

11/16/2025

What do you do for respite and reinforcement?

11/15/2025

Link to full post in bio.

11/11/2025

11/08/2025

Never underestimate your power to understand who, what or where they think they are.

Often this is based on their life story, preferences and interests.

💚

11/07/2025

What do we mean by stepping into their reality? Changes in the brain due to dementia can cause people to have a distorted view of reality. They may not be interpreting what they see or hear accurately. Or the capacity to store memories for later retrieval can impact how they view a situation.

When we try to understand how their brain is viewing things and align our approach with their perspective, we can often side step conflict. Several stories are shared to illustrate.

11/04/2025

11/03/2025

Communication is essential to everyone. If you are observing responses that are agitated or aggressive, consider if communication is a factor.

What to do...
1. Slow down
2. Use fewer words
3. Allow them extra time to respond
4. Request a speech therapy evaluation to understand their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to understanding and expressing language