Wandering/yelling out in Frontal Lobe Dementia

Nurses General Nursing

Published

We have a resident with (very) advanced Frontal Lobe dementia. He's always smiling and laughing, but he only speaks with the same phrases ("yeah I think so", "what're you doin that for?"). The biggest issue is his wandering and constant yelling out. I work with a 40 year veteran of this field and she hasn't ever seen anything like it. Yelling out at least once every few minutes during waking hours (and at least 10 times while he's sleeping at night). He is also excessively wandering throughout the day. We will catch him trying to go into someone's room, wheel him back to nearby the nurses desk and leave for 3 minutes (say go to the laundry room, etc) and come back and he's gone again. Throughout the day. We've tried giving him things like a baby doll and he just says no and drops it on the floor and wanders off again. With things like this, I know we are supposed to keep it moving and not worry about symptoms of dementia, but it is getting out of hand as he is keeping residents awake during the night, his yelling is very disruptive to residents AND family during the day, not to mention how angry the wandering makes a lot of residents. We have tried communication with his MD but all he responded with was "behavior likely due to dementia" (.........).

I guess what I'm saying is, has anyone had experience with F.L. Dementia and have any ideas on how to address?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Yes. Load him up with back to back "nursing doses" of IM haldol and Ativan. Then stick him in a recliner, bring the back all the way down, legs all the way up, so that he's almost flat, and bring the tray down in front of him. Have a steady supply of adult briefs on hand. Done and done. No more wandering.

Just kidding. :sneaky:

Does he have family?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Lol I had a certain facial expression for the first half of that paragraph :whistling:

Yes he does, but they live about an hour and a half away (he had to come all the way here because there was only one LTC facility in the county he lived in) so they don't visit too often.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment