Traveling with a person suffering from dementia is not an easy undertaking. The change of location alone puts a dementia patient under stress. New impressions, unfamiliar surroundings and unfamiliar faces confuse and unsettle. A relaxing vacation as a dementia patient is nevertheless possible. Special travel offers help to provide dementia patients, but also their caregiving relatives, with a valuable respite from everyday life.
A time out does you good
The relatives of dementia patients in particular bear a heavy burden. In most cases, it is they who are entrusted with the care and nursing of the patients. According to the German Alzheimer’s Association, about 70 percent of those with the disease live in the family environment. If the partner with dementia is cared for at home by the wife or the mother with Alzheimer’s is cared for by the daughter, this presents the relatives with a number of challenges. Depending on how far the symptoms have progressed, the patient requires appropriate care. In the final stage, this can mean 24-hour care. Even at the beginning, the disease leads to strains on living together. Dealing lovingly with the increasingly forgetful relative strains patience, conversations are repeated, sometimes every minute. Unforeseen events can exasperate, leading to aggressiveness in some patients. The relatives suffer from the pressure of having to be permanently present. The focus within the family is increasingly directed towards the needs of the ill person, so that caring relatives can quickly fall by the wayside. Therefore, a vacation with patients suffering from dementia is a thoroughly sensible change from everyday life.
Relaxing vacation for patients with dementia and their relatives
Therefore, the vacation offers that now exist for dementia patients and their relatives are designed for both parties. Not only the patient should benefit from the recreational effect, but also the accompanying person should be able to recharge their batteries sufficiently during this time out. To ensure this, the protected setting of the dementia patients is the first priority. Only those who know that their partner or parent is in reliable hands can plan their own activities with a clear conscience. While the patients are cared for by experienced staff, the relatives can take part in organized excursions or use the time for themselves. Some organizers offer additional training courses and lectures in which relatives are informed about the clinical picture itself, as well as the assistance offered by care services and the possibilities of financial support. The exchange with other affected persons is also part of the concept. In the process, relatives discover that they are not alone with their worries and needs, and they can learn new strategies for dealing with the disease on a daily basis.
Vacation according to individual wishes
The offer for the patients includes movement, creative design, as well as mental demand in the form of music and art therapy, dance, memory training or gymnastics. Through painting or dancing, the patients discover new variants of expression, which can be a strengthening moment in the case of increasing speech loss. Singing together brings out buried memories. A sense of achievement in a game of words or memory provides a moment of joy. The stay in the specially selected hotels is characterized by clear structures. A fixed daily routine provides the support that is so important for dementia patients. Small, manageable hotels with easily recognizable orientation aids make it easier to find one’s way around. In order to take the special needs of the guests into account, barrier-free accessibility, special dietary offers and medical connections are necessary. The staff knows about the idiosyncrasies of its guests and won’t be surprised if the receptionist keeps asking for the room key even though the guest is carrying it in his pocket – just as they won’t wonder why a visitor is tirelessly crossing the corridor with his walker. Meanwhile offers exist in completely Germany, preferentially in the vacation regions at north – and Baltic Sea, the Lueneburger heath, in the Rhön or in the Black Forest. Abroad one can book stays in Austria, Italy and even in Greece and Thailand.Different factors should be included in the selection: Is there a region that was gladly traveled to and to which positive memories exist? Should a short travel route be chosen or can the patient even be trusted with a longer flight? What about the local medical care? Do the courses fit the preferences of the patient? And last but not least: Where would the relative feel comfortable and could imagine relaxing days?
Financial support from the state
Whether it becomes eight days Franconian Switzerland, two weeks Baltic Sea or three weeks Greece, depends also on the purse. You do not have to bear the costs of such a trip alone: by means of the so-called prevention care, which is to guarantee the care of the patient during the vacation of the caregiver, a subsidy of a maximum of € 1,612 per calendar year can be applied for through the nursing care insurance. The duration of the claim is limited to a maximum of 42 calendar days. The prerequisite for this is that the dementia patient already receives care allowance and has been cared for in the home environment for at least six months. In order to take advantage of this and possible other financial assistance, organizers of trips with dementia patients offer appropriate informational talks and cooperation in the application process.
Dementia patients also need a change of scenery
So a vacation with a dementia patient, if well planned and thought out, can be a harmonious and relaxing break for both. For the patient, it provides special moments that would be difficult to generate in the home environment. The family member, strengthened by the time out, is left with new impulses for his or her daily care routine.
