Cognitive impairment can reduce the person's ability to receive information from their environment?

Question

How this function might be affected by cognitive impairment. How might you, as a personal support worker, assist this person with this difficulty?

Answer 1

Cognitive impairment involves reduced attention, orientation, memory, judgment, insight and reasoning.
Managing a patient requires, first of all, making sure you have their attention prior to attempting communication or performing a task. You can do this by starting any communication or task by saying the patient's name, establishing eye contact, and touching a hand or arm. Keep sentences short and to the point.
You can organize tasks simply. For example, lay out the patient's clothes and cue them to put them on in a sequence (underwear, socks, pants, shirt, sweater, jacket, etc.)
Calendars can be useful for orienting a patient to the day and date, as well as a memory aid. Put important events, such as visits from family and friends, on the date of the visit. Cross off the days which have passed.
You may want to consider suggesting to the family that they get a referral from the doctor for a few visits from a home health speech pathologist . He/she can identify ways to help with the management of the patient in his/her home environment.