Topic: calming anxiety
Editor’s Note: We use pseudonyms and other narrative elements in our stories and case examples to safeguard the identities and privacy of our clients.
Dementia impairs cognitive functions like memory, reasoning, and emotional regulation. These brain changes can cause anxiety in a person living with Alzheimer’s or another dementia who is struggling to understand their world.
Recognizing and soothing anxiety in someone living with dementia requires a compassionate, patient, and individualized approach. Calming the nervous system involves moving the body from fight, flight, and freeze responses into a state where breathing and heart rate is regulated and the nervous system calms down.
Creative Engagement Specialists (CES) are knowledgeable and experienced in anxiety-calming activities which support a decrease in anxiousness and an increase in joy and well-being. …