The Alzheimer’s Society of BC is hoping a new series of webinars will benefit both dementia patients and their caregivers.

The weekly event is head online every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. on the society’s website.

Provincial coordinator Sarah Eveneshen said on the NL Morning News the info sessions cover a wide range of topics, like being able to tell what the patient is being confused by.

“So on the webinar we do talk about, what are delusions and hallucinations and visual mistakes as being some of those things in the environment that we can modify to help alleviate what we think is a hallucination but actually is just a misconception of something in the environment,” she said.

Eveneshen stressed the importance of caregivers knowing the difference between hallucinating and making a simple mistake.

“You know, you might have someone with dementia coming to you and say there’s a mouse in the room,” she added.

“But, when you investigate further you see that actually the lighting is quite poor and it makes it look the the cord attached to a light is similar to that of a mouse’s tail so just being aware of things in the environment that could create that perception of something else is huge.”

Knowing the feelings of a person who is suffering, as much as what they’re saying, is crucial to their well being, she also noted.

“Identifying the emotion that someone’s sharing as opposed to the story because for that person, that’s their reality, we want to validate that and then once we validate the emotion in the story we can gently distract and move on to something a bit more enjoyable and get past any of the challenges that can arise with the sharing of a delusion or hallucination,” Eveneshen said.

Asked about what dementia patients need the most at the moment, Eveneshen says that every family is different that there is a range depending on the type of dementia that somebody has and what they’re living with.

“We really encourage, where ever the person’s at, to find an activity that brings some quality and meaning to that person where ever they’re at,” she added.

“So, of course these activities are quite more engaged early on in the illness and then as it progresses we’re going to simplify and adapt based on the person’s abilities at the time and based on their interests of course and their life history. So it’s really about a sliding scale of activity and just finding something to really keep that person engaged and bring meaning to their day.”

“This goes a long way in helping some of the behaviours that come up.”