Humanities in Health Care Practices
Heather Emmett
HLT-305
1/13/2013
Instructor Kimberly Cairns-McGhee

Having a patient come into my office showing the first stages of dementia, she is 80 years old, without any prier diseases to cause the onset of dementia such as AIDS or a stroke, then I would look towards Alzheimer’s. With any of the medication I would prescribe, I would also suggest one or more of the following therapies to help keep the mind active. First, I would stories because she would still be able to remember names of family and friends. Next, I would say to use art or pictures of any kind that reminds her of family or friends even every day stuff that she may need to use or see. Last, I would say use music for music could bring back wonderful memories for anyone, also most find that music is calming and that may be helpful for when she gets frustrated. Using stories to help someone remember you would have to know that person well. When my grandma was in her last stages of her life she had dementia; and before she got to the point where she did not remember anyone or anything I would tell her stories of my mom and my aunts and uncles all growing up for these are the things she remembered. They were the stories she told me. I feel that if we tell them stories they already know it will trigger there memory of family and friends. If you use pictures or some kind of art you need to make sure that it is, something that they can relate there everyday life to with my grandma we used recent pictures of my family next to pictures of them when they were younger. This may seem extreme but as dementia gets further along it helps with the recognition of people. Some people also use music for with some music will help with recognition and it may help with calming a person. I was lucky to never have to see my grandma to the point of not always remembering