Dementia/rape trauma syndrome

Nurses General Nursing

Published

deleted

Renee, I will have to look up the information that you posted. In a facility that I was a DON in we had a patient who was a Nazi Camp survivor. She had alzheimers, and doing nearly anything with her was a trauma for her, and often had staff in tears as well.

I went in on a night shift once because I had a nurse who was ill and needed to go home. I was sitting at the desk when the most God awful howls started and had me running down the hallway. When I got to this woman's room she was standing on her bed, howling, screaming wildly and pulling at her hair. The whole scene was so shocking that I literally stood there frozen not knowing what the hell to do. A couple of CNA's came running in past me, got on the bed with her and talked and cooed to her until she was calmer. One of the CNA's, old enough to be my mother, then got the patient out of the bed and held her in her lap and rocked her like a baby. They told me that this situation happened frequently. I did not know that, had been working there about a month. To watch another human being going through what this patient did, day after day, was absolutely heartrending. She seemed to relive her concentration camp days each and every day. I can hardly think of anything so awful as to have alzheimers, yet to be able to remember the terror one went through.

I no longer work at this facility and have never had another patient like her, but the information that you passed along would be useful to know just in case. Particularly because were I work now we do get vets from WWII more frequently than we used to.

The only other situation I had that could compare was a woman who had nearly drowned as a child who would fight like a tiger when we bathed her. Had her two or three months before we found out that information from her family. After we knew what the problem was we only did an actual shower once a week and sedated with xanax first. The rest of the time she received a bed bath, which did not bother her. We never put her in a tub again, only the shower.

Wish I had some answer andrienurse. Very sad situation.

Wow, how awful Country! Although I have to tell you, with real Alzheimer patients, Validation hardly ever works.

that is the difference between "physilogical" dementia and the illness Alzheimer (don't ask me the details, I am sure you yourself know them better as I do)

But the holding and cuddling is always good, as is the singing of old lullabies from ages ago (or other famous, quiet songs).

What I noticed top, is that "uniforms", especially white ones or green ones, set these people of immediately.

As do smells. Wearing a nice, sweet perfume (I personally hate them, but what the hell) often helps too.

As for music, NEVER let them hear marching music or something similar to military music, I really witnessed patients going nuts, just because somebody put on some radio station.

You just got to know your history (and I know you do very well indeed, my compliments for your knowledge in this occasion too! honestly, I always admire your posts) and then it is not so hard, to liquidate (no that is a word not to use in their presence) the triggers for these patients.

Take care, Renee

A (very) general guide I have found over the years, is to imagine the memory as a filing cabinet, with all the memories stored in broadly chronological order. Alzheimers removes those files in much the same order, only taking the most recent ones first. Using this analogy, you can guesstimate approximately which era if not year that person is "living in" from which memories they still retain, eg. not recognisig their partner of thirty years would indicate that music from a time before then may still be familiar to them, whilst something more recent than that would probably not be so.

Just a practical suggestion, it's worked for me!

Re of washing the patient's hair, is it possible to do it in a beautician's sink? I don't know what they're really called, but those deep porcelain sinks with the reclining chairs in front that the beauty parlor washes your hair in before a haircut.

I don't have any eldercare (or LTC, or dementia) experience, but my mother has neurofibromatosis and is forever having one tumour or another removed, not infrequently from her face or neck area, and is therefore unable to wash her hair in a shower until the sutures are removed. She goes to a Great Clips or Supercuts and pays them $5 (including the tip!) to wash her hair in one of those sinks.

Obviously, you couldn't just trot a dementia patient into a Supercuts, but I'm wondering if one of those sinks could be installed in your facility. The other option might be a "dry shampoo", which my mum has also used. She uses one by Bumble & Bumble, I think.

I have to say that people around the age 80 group experienced sexual repression to a degree that younger folks don't under stand. Many times as children they were made to feel there was some dirty thing they did not comprehend. They were also made to feel horrible about there bodies. I suspect a lot of the "don't touch me down there" stuff is that programming. Got a feeling not all that stuff is due to actual physical assualt. I picked up a lot of it from my mom. It is only a fraction of the programming she got. When my mom was tucked into bed at night she was told, "hands above the head". She literally had to sleep with her hands above her head at night because adults feared that children might masterbate. She did not realized what this was all about until she was grown woman. This is just one of the stories she told me. She really tried not to pass the shame and the disgust on but you can't totally eliminate it. The whole sexual revolution was a rebellion against that repression. If it appears that it has swung to far remember that rebellions tend to do that very thing. The laws of nature dictate that things balance out and probably some time in the next 50 years attitudes toward sex will become more sane.

I don't have any eldercare (or LTC, or dementia) experience, but my mother has neurofibromatosis and is forever having one tumour or another removed, not infrequently from her face or neck area, and is therefore unable to wash her hair in a shower until the sutures are removed. She goes to a Great Clips or Supercuts and pays them $5 (including the tip!) to wash her hair in one of those sinks.

Obviously, you couldn't just trot a dementia patient into a Supercuts, but I'm wondering if one of those sinks could be installed in your facility. The other option might be a "dry shampoo", which my mum has also used. She uses one by Bumble & Bumble, I think.

off topic but how is your mother affected by the nf ...is it nf 1 or 2? you can pm me cuz i have nf also

+ Add a Comment