Links among communication, dementia, and caregiver burden

Dementia is a degenerative syndrome that affects multiple mental functions includingcognition and behaviour. Family caregivers of individuals with dementia also experiencethe devastating effects of the syndrome on their relatives’ memory, language andcommunication. Currently, Canadian family caregivers provide more than fifty percent ofthe care for an estimated 500,000 people with dementia. Audiologists and speech-languagepathologists need to be cognizant of the expanding communication, hearing and languageneeds of individuals with dementia and their family caregivers. This paper addresses thecomplex relationships among communication problems in dementia, the burdens sufferedby family caregivers, and the effects of communication education and training programsdesigned to enhance communication and to minimize caregiver burden. The literature showsclearly that clinicians must include both family caregivers and their relatives with dementiain comprehensive communication care interventions in order to achieve optimal outcomes.Moreover, clinicians must provide education and training to caregivers concerning the use ofevidence-derived effective communication, hearing, language and speech strategies to helpreduce caregiver burden