Compassionate Touch and Alzheimer's
Before we consider compassionate touch or massage, and
Alzheimer's disease, we need to know what Alzheimer's disease
actually is. It is a neurological disorder characterized by a
loss of memory, speechlessness and paralysis. It is a
progressive disease that destroys parts of the brain, and is
therefore incurable.
Compassionate Touch and Deciding on Massage Approach
For the person suffering from Alzheimer's disease who has lost
memory, your compassionate touch may be the one thing with which
he or she connects. Hold your loved one's hands, give a gentle
massage to his or her feet, legs, or arms. Even if the one
suffering from Alzheimer's does not recognize you and cannot
communicate verbally, this is one way of reassurance and love.
Alzheimer's massage decreases physical agitation and improves
sleep patterns in people suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
A 26-minute video available on www.terranova.org -
"Compassionate touch: benefits and effects in Alzheimer's care"
- shows the use of attentive touch and gentle massage in caring
for and relating to people with Alzheimer's disease. Massage is
therapeutic and its application in Alzheimer's disease has shown
reduction in behaviors such as wandering, aggression and
agitation.
The stimulation provided by massage helps Alzheimer patients to
communicate physically. The direct physical contact provides the
Alzheimer sufferers to relax, and so reducing the anxiety
associated with it. The compassionate touch therapy through
massage offers immense relief and aids the drug therapy, which
the sufferers of Alzheimer's disease may have been prescribed
with. The massage therapy can be effective in two ways: it can
induce relaxation by alleviating some of the anxiety associated
with Alzheimer's, and it can stimulate the nervous system that
is in decline because of the disease.
The elderly sufferers of Alzheimer's generally experience a loss
of sensitivity to touch and the compassionate touch of massage
can help to re-invigorate it. Alzheimer's massage can have other
benefits as well. In addition to helping eliminate or reduce
anxiety, massage can also decrease the amount of pain
experienced by Alzheimer's sufferers. Compassionate touch is an
expression of intimacy and emotional connectedness and if
carried out by family members, can elicit increased contact and
improved communication.
The relations between compassionate touch and Alzheimer's is
only being realized now. Alzheimer's massage benefits the
sufferers not only by relieving pain, but also by their over-all
protection. Building the nervous system's response to stimuli
enables the elderly Alzheimer's patients to resist physical and
mental decline.