VIDEO – DIAGNOSIS+CARE:
Misperceptions triggered by dementia are often misdiagnosed as hallucinations. The result? Unnecessary, harsh antipsychotic treatments. Dr. G. Allen Power has fought over-medication for more than a decade. See Dr. Power’s practical techniques for rising above this dangerous practice.
Dr. G. Allen Power is a board-certified internist, nursing-home practitioner, specialist geriatrician, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester, and an Eden Alternative Educator and Mentor.
For a decade, he has taken every opportunity to discuss the common over-use of medication in dementia.
Watch him share memorable stories and helpful insights into delusions, hallucinations and misperceptions in dementia.
SOURCE:
- AgeSong Senior Communities
I can tell you he's full of it! My mother has hallucinations every day now where she is seeing a man in the couch. She talks to him and goes to the couch and rubs it and asks him if he's okay. I would like for him to see some of the videos I have taken of her doing these things. This started about a week ago now but she has been seeing people, animals, babies, horse and buggys, etc since she was diagnosed in 2015. I don't agree with anything he said except I will not have my mother on antipsychotic drugs, not as long as she is at home with me.
People with dementia need more care and support. some time people living with dementia experience hallucination that time we should have understand their sight and ensure feeling of safety.
Nursing Home Dorking
Dr Power's video was informative and educational and presented many techniques that many of us already implement. However as a long term caregiver for a person with Lewy Body and Parkinsons, I am perplexed at his disregard of hallucinations – not delusional behaviour – but hallucinations and LBD. We do use the calm, remove from area and connect on an emotional level technique with our loved one. I can assure Dr Power that his hallucinations are exactly that and not misinformation or stimulation from external sources that are not misinterpreted by us. Dr Power has excellent credentials however he is not in a 24 x7 carer. I was also dismayed by his casual rendering of the story of Willy. Yes there was a cockroach and this was the trigger, but at the time what Willy saw on the wall was also real to him at that time a true hallucination not a delusion. I was also dismayed when Dr Power used the words Haldol and Parkinson in the same breath. I am assuming that Will also had LBD . Parkinson/LBD suffers should NEVER be described Haldol as it may result in Neuroleptic Malignancy Syndrome and will certainly make any hallucinatory or delusional behaviour worse due to the extreme sensitivity of LBD/Parkinsons patients to antipsychotics.
Oh wow, thank you Dr Power for taking off your Dr hat and becoming a compassionate and connected human being. It was amazing listening to you echoing many unheard voices of the carers of dementia sufferers. I hope that the 'professional' world learn from you. Medication is not the only form of healing. Thank you so much. (MMSH)