What do Alzheimer’s patients benefit from socializing with people?
- Helps keep the brain healthy
- Helps make the patients gain a sense of belonging
- Helps strengthen the awareness on time and place
- Helps maintain focus
Socialization plays an important role in the life of everyone, especially for Alzheimer’s and other dementia patients. Hence, why caregiver services such as those in Chicago continues to provide an ideal environment for them to interact with each other. This does not only provide them the opportunity to talk and share their stories to a few people but also, it allows the illness to slow down and prevent the patient from feeling isolated or even depressed.
More than these, here are a few things that you should know about socialization’s significance for Alzheimer’s and other dementia’s patients.
What does socialization pertain to?
We know socialization as an act of interacting and engaging with other people, may it be our family, friends, coworkers, or strangers. But what do socialization means for those who are touched with a condition such as Alzheimer’s disease?
As the Alzheimer’s Association writes on their official site, Socialization proves to enhance the lives of those with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia and their care partners. We’ve known for some time that being social is an essential part of one’s brain health with healthy diet and exercise.
Having been proven beneficial to an Alzheimer’s patient’s health, various Azheimer’s caregiver services and associate organizations continuous to provide socialization programs that can help the patients live better. Among these programs include outreach program, day care program, and others that aims to build stronger, better relationships between peers in a fun environment.
How can socialization help Alzheimer’s patients?
For Alzheimer’s patients, socialization allows a variety of benefits that helps them live life with a sense of familiarity and belongingness. Among these are the following:
Keeps the brain healthy
Scientifically speaking, protein fragments accumulated in the cells of the brain results to Alzheimer’s. They develop as hard, insoluble plaques that disrupts the normal cerebral function slowly. Now, as studies say, a simple act of socialization and exercise can help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s. This is due to the gene called BDNF that helps protect the brain from further tangles and plaques of protein.
Helps make the patients gain a sense of belonging
What Alzheimer’s patients need is not isolation, nor special treatment. Most of the time, what they needed is to feel that they still belong regardless of the illness, and that they are still relevant to their environment. Socialization makes this possible, most especially if the person is able to interact confidently with the people around him/her.
Helps strengthen the awareness on time and place
Staying at home for days without going out or keeping updated with the current events (even with the use of televisions) may cause a person to forget the time and day. The same goes for Alzheimer’s patients, but at a different level. Given the occurring memory loss, it can be hard for them to remember the time or place. Hence, socialization is being advised by various Alzheimer’s experts as it slows down the progress of the Alzheimer’s disease, and still allows them to have a sense of order and structure in their daily life.
Helps maintain focus
As older people age, it may be more difficult for them to keep their focus and distinguish the reality from images of daydreaming. The purpose of socialization in this matter is that it helps keep the brain active, therefore making the transition of necessary daily activities easier and smoother for them.
Key Takeaway
Socialization is an important factor in the life of an Alzheimer’s patient. Not only does it slow the progression of the illness but also creates a better environment for them to live in and enjoy with their family and peers.
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