Communication Techniques in Late Stage Alzheimer's

Your mention of the ethical considerations when trying communication with late stage Alzheimer's (and coma and other situations) is right on. We have to be careful we aren't forcing something on the person they don't want.

It's said the sense of hearing is the last to go, but of course many elderly people have hearing issues even when they are otherwise healthy. So, this only goes so far. Watching the person's subtle reactions to what you are doing is important. You mentioned, Christine, the daughter who said something works one day and not the next. She's very tuned into her mother, and that's what is needed.

Touch is extremely important in many cases, but for some it can be irritating. Same with music. Thanks for this informative article.

Carol

My mother passed away in a hospice in an advanced stage of Alzheimer's.  She had lost her speech about a year earlier and it was unclear for some months whether she could recognize me or my wife on our regular visits to see here.  My mother loved to garden and work in the yard.  On the day before she passed away I went to visit her on a beautiful, sunny, crisp day in Colorado.  I sat down beside here, took her hand and said, Mom, it is such a beautiful day outside.  It would be a great day to be working in the garden.  Her gaze slowly drifted from my face to look out the big picture window in her room onto a scenic flower garden just beyond the window.  I knew in that instant she had comprehended what I had said.

I agree whole-heartedly with Carol Bradley Bursack's comment about considering the individuality of people in late stage Alzheimer's disease and the ethics of intervention when it may not be wanted. When they respond positively, it's wonderful and there are many comforting things that can be tried near the end of life. (See the book Namaste by Joyce Simard.)  However, the most intriguing slide I ever saw about late stage Alzheimer's disease compared an MRI of the parts of the brain active in Tibetan monks in deep meditation with the brain of a person in late stage AD -- they were nearly identical! Perhaps -- just perhaps -- the person with late stage AD who is physically and emotionally comfortable is in a deep meditative state that is rarely achieved by most of us. It's an intriguing thought.