Halloween is so much more than just tricks and treats for someone with cognitive impairment. For someone with dementia, Halloween can truly be a confusing and honestly scary time. The decorations, change of routine, noise, and general Halloween night chaos can produce anxiety and at times more challenging behaviors. The doorbell ringing continuously, kids running about the neighborhood, flashing lights and more can be anxiety producing for anyone, so imagine if you did not have the cognitive capacity to comprehend, cope, and process what is happening.
However, with proper planning you can ensure that your loved one has a peaceful and less stressful Halloween this season! Here are a few tips that can help reduce anxiety and help to best support a safe and festive Halloween for your loved one!
Introduce the Holiday in Advance: Prepare your loved one at their level. Mark the calendar with a fun holiday sticker and begin to talk about past memories of the season. Use this as an opportunity to connect with them and tap into past preserved memories and positive emotions from the seasons past. Sometimes talking about Halloween traditions and some of the things that usually happen relating to noise, decorations, costumes, etc can be helpful depending upon the individuals capacity and cognitive level. Sometimes helping them to choose a costume to wear or special hat, etc can be helpful as it can visually cue and remind. Participating in non scary community events can also be fun!
Tapping into the sense can be a valuable tool in accessing positive, past preserved memories. The sights, smells, and non scary sounds on their terms can be helpful tools in minimizing anxiety and maximizing their enjoyment.
Involve them in activities that give them purpose: At the core, everyone needs and wants a sense of purpose. Ask them to help on their terms. Involve them in holiday preparations, again ALL on their terms. For example holiday decorating, selection of candy to give out, costumes or hats, holiday meal prep or preparation of a special snack to share if celebrating with others. Tap into past traditions when doing to help them to connect at their level and to connect with happy and positive emotions. Everyone needs and wants purpose so this will help to cue them to the holiday, but also help them to feel involved on their terms.
Choose Decorations and set the scene mindfully: Keep decorations on their terms. It is usually best to defer to more simple, non flashing, and non moving or more predictable decorations. Avoid using strobe lights, smoke machines, as they can be scary and disorient someone with dementia. Scary costumes, moving items, loud or flashing decor, can all cause anxiety and significant challenges quickly. Be mindful thoughout remembering that some decor can be confusing and be percieved as a potential threat. Remember that for many people with dementia they cannot decern what is real versus fake. Imagine how scary it would be for you to see a coffin in your front yard, skeletons, ghosts, demons, monsters, zombies, or other graphic items and not understand why these scary items are there or have the capacity to process this ocurrence.
In addition, if they are near or in front of a television with a scary movie on they may in fact think that these events are happening to them. Most of us get scared on some level during halloween so imagine if you were experiencing this thinking that this was all real - you would would react quickly in fear perhaps running to hide, making attempts to protect yourself, etc - this is how those with cognitive impairment can react which can result in not only fear, but also injury.
So defer to more seasonal, non-scary Halloween decorations like gourds and pumpkins, corn husks, happy graphics, banners, and signs, etc. Taking a less is more approach can also be helpful to limit over stimulation - all on their terms. Consider just decorating the front door area and /or yard, and perhaps another main area of the home with their involvement.
Make Safety Paramount: Limit clutter and do not change their usual routine or envionment in a significant way. Their envionment provides safety, security, and often cues them to many tasks throughout the day. A significant change can prompt anxiety, cognitive taxing, and even challenging behaviors.
Ensure that a less is more approach again is taken to decor! Avoid anything that could be a tripping hazard,safety risk, keep items off of the floor, minimize clutter, and avoid low-hanging decorations that they can get stuck in, tripped by, or could serve again as a potential threat.
Be mindful of the color black and solid black items as these can be perceived by those with dementia as a void or visually as a black hole which can invoke fear. Avoid candle use as even battery operated candles can produce scary shadows, impact depth perception, and real candles are a fire hazard and should always be avoided. Ensure that the home remains safe and frustration free during the holiday season.
Support quiet and quiet spaces: If trick or treating is going to be a challenge put a sign at the mail box area or at the beginning of a path to your front door and at the door way areas asking for quiet and showing non participation. Keep front exterior lights off to also deter people from coming to the doorway or close to the home. This will limit noise and over stimulation.
If participating and accepting trick or treaters plan for this in advance remembering that you can always stop at any time or limit the amount of time doing this to prevent over stimulation by turning off exterior lights and pacing signage. Have a sign prepared also for your front door just in case needed.
Many approaches can be taken based on your loved one and level of cognition. Take a flexible approach, but pre plan! If the main living area is too close to the front door consider moving to a quieter part of the house if this does not disrupt normal routine. Otherwise, sitting near the door or a window where they can view visitors and limit being surprised, anticipating trick or treaters to avoid startling and the door bell from ringing repeatedly can be helpful and limit over stimulation a bit. Giving verbal cues such as, "look how cute they are, or here comes more trick or treaters, are you ready?" can be helpful. You can also gauge their response before individuals are at the door and make changes quickly if needed.
Disconnecting the doorbell for the night of can also be helpful if easy and possible. This may help to reduce some overstimulation and anxiety as this is often a problem.
You can also simply place a sign on the door or even better over the door bell asking visitors to kindly knock. If wanting to participate, but not hand our candy or have individuals at the door, you can even use a more remote approach by placing a sign on a table explaining more and leaving some self serve treats to avoid disruptions.
Finally: Remember, pre plan and take the cues from your loved one to make the holiday fun, festive, and stress free for all!
Reach out if you need more guidacne as we are happy to help!
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