The Caregiver’s Journey 2

The Behavior Log is the most critical log for the documentation of what happens with my client during each person’s shift. The more I read the logbook, the more I am convinced that much of my client’s behavior is based upon the caregiver surrounding him. The further my client moves in the later stages of Alzheimer’s, the more he becomes a mirror of those by which he is surrounded. The Behavior Log used on every shift.
Each caregiver has a pattern. If you took the logs of each caregiver out, looked at them individually, they would represent the caregiver as much as they represent my client. The caring of a person with Alzheimer’s is like caring for a healthy little child but in the opposite direction. With a healthy child, one is dealing with the evolution of becoming a person, and there is an empty slate to mold metaphorically speaking. With the older adult with Alzheimer’s, the process one is dealing with is de-evolution. The full slate, metaphorically speaking, is being wiped clean a little every day. However, the commonality between the older adult with Alzheimer’s and the healthy little child is that they are both dependent on their caregiver for behavioral guidance. It has been said that children are what they learn and to that which they are exposed. It is the same with a person with Alzheimer’s, to that which they are exposed do they act out. If a person is confident and genuinely wants to be with the person with Alzheimer’s, they know and feel the positive thought energy and respond in the cocoon of comfort. If a person does not want to be with the person with Alzheimer’s and exhibits resentfulness of having to be with them, then the person with Alzheimer’s can feel that and reacts to that resentful energy by wanting to escape from it because it is negative and uncomfortable to be around.