However, I believe there is more to wandering than simple curiosity. Looking for the people who love him/herĭo you have more ideas? Feel free to share them in the comments.ġ0 thought-provoking links on dementia “wandering”Įxploring makes perfect sense, thanks.Breaking the monotony of being in one place. Expanding her/his world beyond four walls.Going to (the market, the pub, the park, an unknown destination).Seeing what’s going on (inside, outside, in the next room, etc.).Discovering the environment around her/him.With that in mind, I offer these alternatives to describe “wandering:” However, I believe we should find ways to accommodate their natural desire to move, exercise and discover, and thus to help them stay healthy and engage with life and their environment. They may easily become lost or disoriented. I’m not suggesting that after a certain point in the evolution of the disease that it may become riskier for people who live with dementia to walk, explore and go places alone. Just because we don’t know what a person’s destination or purpose is, doesn’t mean they don’t have one, and just because they may have forgotten what their destination or purpose is doesn’t mean they didn’t have one to begin with. Purposefully walking somewhere is a completely normal and natural thing for human beings to do. Worse, we add insult to injury by labeling them as “wanderers” as if this behaviour were aberrant, which it’s not. The problem arises when we attach negative connotations to normal behaviour such as wandering and use them to describe behaviour in people who live with dementia in ways that demean them. I promised Mini Merlin an answer here it is: There’s nothing inherently wrong with the words “wander,” “wandering,” or “wander.” Consider this statement for example: “I love to go to the old parts of cities and wander around to see what I might find.” In this sense, wandering implies something pleasurable, natural, and explorative. She has dementia, but she is the loving, caring person she always has been.” “But I’m just curious what word you would substitute for ‘wandering’ as that’s what I’ve been using for my mom. “I agree,” commented Mini Merlin in response to the #1 reason people with dementia try to escape.
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