{"id":480,"date":"2017-09-07T21:42:10","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T21:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carebuildersathomemn.com\/?p=480"},"modified":"2017-09-07T21:42:10","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T21:42:10","slug":"dealing-with-alzheimers-hallucinations-and-delusions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carebuildersathome.com\/minnesota\/blog\/dealing-with-alzheimers-hallucinations-and-delusions\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with Alzheimer\u2019s Hallucinations and Delusions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being a family caregiver for a senior with Alzheimer\u2019s disease (AD) comes with lots of challenges and unusual situations. One of the more challenging aspects of AD are the hallucinations and delusions that can occur in the middle and late stages of the disease. They can be disconcerting and cause erratic behavior that can be hard to manage, especially since caregivers and home care providers cannot sense the same hallucination or understand the cause of the delusion. Although it may never be easy to handle hallucinations and delusions, there are some strategies that can help you to manage them.<\/p>\n

Hallucinations versus Delusions<\/strong>
\nHallucinations and delusions are not the same thing. A hallucination is an imagined thing that the AD patient senses, either by sight, touch, smell, taste, or hearing. Sometimes hallucinations can be of frightening things, like insects crawling on the person. Other times, they might hallucinate something from the past, such as a person or event.<\/p>\n

A delusion is when the person with AD believes something that is not true. For example, they may believe that someone is stealing from them or that they are being followed. They can be especially hard for caregivers and family members if the person accuses them of wrongdoing. If that happens, its important to remember that you cannot rationalize with the person and the delusion is not personalit is a symptom of the disease.<\/p>\n

Management Strategies<\/strong>
\nThere are several things that family caregivers and home care providers can do to manage hallucinations and delusions. Here are a few strategies that may help:<\/p>\n