Dementia Refusals Medication: 'I don't need these'

3 Key Dementia Dos and Don'ts - April 22-24 2025 - 7:30pm US Eastern Time each day.

[upwardsandonwardshealing]

i used to call them hair skin and nails vitamins for the ladies!! worked like a charm!

[formulafish]

It’s so important with dementia care that you’re able to do this. What I find sad as a Non-Emergency patient transport officer is that I am better at doing this than those that work in aged care and have training for dementia patients and work with them on a daily basis… sure, the vast majority of people I transfer are older and many do have dementia, but I am not working every day, and certainly don’t have the formal dementia training.

At a Nursing home I was the one to de-escalate a patient because they had a power outage and her air mattress had not been reinflated. They wanted this elderly lady, who was bed-bound, to sit in an arm chair for half an hour or so until the bed had reinflated, and wouldn’t budge. It wasn’t until my colleague and I asked if there was another mattress they could substitute, and leave her on our stretcher until the new mattress was in and bed made that we had a solution, and the patient calmed down. She was adamant she was not sitting in the chair, and was having a full-on fit about it. I turned and explained to her that we won’t make her sit in the chair. Explained that a new mattress is on the way, and you can stay on our bed until it’s made, and then added in “how does that sound” on the end, making her think she had a say. She was very happy. 10 mins later she was happy and in her own bed in her own room.

[nursenicole]

I use the terms memory supplements for the dementia meds. I get a lot of “I could use all the help I can get”. 😂😂😂😂

[whychoooseausername]

Something I'm not proud of, but I was serving as an ER NA while a med student in May 2020 (all our rotations had been cancelled, I recruited about 400 volunteers for ICU and emergency positions).
This poor little grandma kept begging me for for paracetamol when she wasn't allowed more, and I decided to use the placebo effect. I diluted a bit of sugar in her water and told her it was paracetamol. I'm not proud but it worked.

[fallenshadow]

I work as a med tech and care giver for people with dementia, I experience this scenario every day and I'm glad to know I've been doing it right!

[aleenadavid]

I LOVE your channel so much this reminds me of when my grandpa died and we were going through a tough time

[figmo]

I remember this with Mom. She didn't like taking ANY pills (and yeah, she was IMHO on way too many). I would take my pills with her to emphasize that she wasn't the only one taking them.

I also, whenever possible, would slip her meds into her coffee or juice.

[Langwidere]

I spent Christmas with my extended family, including my grandma who has dementia. She definitely reacted better when my aunt said it was time for “vitamins” instead of medication.

[melkeekiper]

I wish my family had you around 10 years ago when my grandmother was here. None of us were prepared for dementia. 😢

[bringmychariot]

I'm hoping that I don't ever have to go through this, however, I feel like a method that could work is (if you're taking any meds yourself) you can turn it into a routine. My response to the "I don't need those, I'm as healthy as a horse" would be "These are to *keep* you as healthy as a horse. I have to take my medicine too so, let's take them together to stay healthy and so we remember that we took them already." or something along those lines. This could also work with vitamins, I would guess. But I feel like showing them that you're taking your own medicine would help a lot and would help them feel safer or more comfortable because they aren't the only one taking medicine.

[Faye]

As someone whose grandmother suffered from dementia, I thank you greatly for what you're doing.

[xgalaxy]

Worth noting in professional environments we can't lie about what a medication is or hide it unless covert meds have been prescribed by their doctor

[deloresbias]

Hallelujah 🙏🏼 we have to think our head to get people to do things that we care about or we're trying to help other people care for their loved ones are friends of ours or total strangers on the street. Thanks for sharing this lady. 🙋🏻🛐🫂🕊️🌞

[classysnowflake]

You have no idea how much your videos are helping 😢

[Jennifer-grhn]

Great recall of grandma with short term memory, remembering what you just said, in that order --blood pressure and dementia! :)

Great stuff. You're using this platform for GOOD. And you are who I will watch. Not a narcissistic Petri dish of selfish "content." I appreciate you. As a nurse, a human people. Thank you! May it helps others too. With PATIENCE and understanding. That's what love is.

[cielo]

I'm an NEMT. You've helped me get used to working with dementia patients. I was worried about the transition but this really helped me out. Thanks.

[seniathielmeier]

I went through that with my mom. It drove me crazy! She is in a home now, we had a house fire and she moved to the home shortly after. She wasn't happy with us, and the home is taking better care of her than we could have. She is happy there most days.

[AbbyWoodlandAuthor]

Yeah. It’s better to say vitamins. We call the boost shakes chocolate milk too bc they won’t drink it from the bottle.

[TerminallyPerky]

This NOT “just advice”, this amazing woman is giving us. It’s a way of life. We should always treat the young and old with gentleness and respect. This way of kindness can help with dementia to ppl w adhd! It runs a spectrum for EVERYONE.
One example is that she is not only helping dementia patients, but mothers:
My mom (almost) never had to yell at me to do something bc she was such a positive person. Everything she did was in this same vein: not “get off the swing bc you have to go eat dinner! And finish your peas!” She would say things like “hey, I’ll race you inside and if you win, we can have a bite of a cookie before dinner as a little prize!” And “I know you don’t like peas much, I don’t either. But I have to eat mine to make me feel strong and happy, and I’d really love if you could try some with me! We can cheer each other on to take a spoonful so it goes faster!”.
Now she’s approaching 70 and it healthy (aside from a wicked battle with Crohns). We both had to take care of my dad who suffered with cancer all over his body and many illnesses stemming from it. We did the best we could to always keep it positive. He was quite a wheeler and dealer in his healthy days and when things got bad such as anger at himself for being sick or depression that he couldn’t be who he wanted for us, we came up with similar ways to validate him and help him see things were still okay and he could control his environment. He was still a great husband and daddy. An example is- him having to be restrained by the wrists in the hospital bc he wld take his own breathing tube out, I learned I could make deals with him- so I could leave him free and he would “pretend” to be restrained. We worked covertly together and that gave him a headspace of being in control of his own body and situation while still getting the treatments he needed. I thank this method of communication and explanation every day of my life.
And thank YOU for sharing it with the world!!!

[whyisthisachannel]

I took over a lot of care for my granny's husband in his last years. I'm not a nurse, he'd never met me before, but I'm really hard to offend and I did by best to treat him with the same respect I gave my granny. I never asked him to take his pills - but I would ask him what he wanted to drink with them.

He had so many things he couldnt control any more, so it always seemed to help to offer him the power of choice when I could.