In developing patience, make sure you’re not worrying about the past or the future. If the dementia patient did something wrong in the past, you need to learn to let it go. Also, you can’t worry about how they will act in the future, or if they’ll get to where you want them to be. Every time you’re with them, let it be a new start for the both of you.

Help the dementia patient to break down the larger goal into smaller ones. For example, if you were trying to build a house of cars, would you simply say, “it has to be 3 feet high”, and then start to build it just to be that high? No, of course you wouldn’t. You would start by putting two cards together, then adding another two, so on and so forth. Remember to strive to achieve all the little goals, and celebrate each one with the patient.

Sometimes when a person is attempting to help a dementia patient they simply become too controlling. Don’t be that person. You have to learn to hand over some control to the patient, and then simply let go. Let them accomplish whatever it is at their own pace. The more you rush them, the worse the outcome will be.

Patience with dementia patients may be very difficult to have, but there is a reason why patience is a virtue. Strive to achieve that virtue, and your life and the patient’s life will be better for it.

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