CONNECT. ENGAGE.
SOCIAL INTERACTION HELPS BRAIN HEATH by Beth Douglas
Social interaction has powerful brain health benefits for everyone, including people living with dementia.
Social connections, social purpose, and social support are three critical factors for living a life with satisfaction when dementia is part of living. Studies have shown that people who live with dementia and yet stay engaged will have a higher quality of life, with fewer emergency health events.
Why is social interaction and engagement with a purpose so vital to humans?
When we socialize, our brains get really active, they work hard. It’s like exercise for the brain. Positive social
engagement produces hormones and chemicals that are essential to our well-being and survival. Endorphin, dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin are powerful chemicals that keep us going. The lack of these chemicals can result in failure to thrive, loss of interest in survival, and possibly the production of adrenaline and cortisol to compensate. Therefore, social and physical engagement in life plays a key role in sustaining wellbeing when dementia is part of life.
People who develop dementia and establish a support system and life that keeps them involved and engaged in ways they still find satisfying and rewarding experience less distress, fewer episodes of acute crises, and less need for emergency services.
People who are socially isolated are more likely to develop symptoms of dementia than those who stay socially active and involved in purpose-filled lives.
People who do not initiate social interactions or who exhibit some of the more common symptoms of living with dementia are more likely to be left out of social opportunities. Dementia’s impact on language, impulse control, initiation, sequencing, use of logic, working memory, visual fields and skills, interests, and ability to sustain focus or disengage focus affect social interaction skills and opportunities.
Good News: social networking and social engagement are possible, even at the very end of life with dementia.
The challenge for those not living with the disease inside themselves is to build new awareness, knowledge, and skill. Learning how to adapt expectations, modify offers of engagement and connection, and provide effective
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Aging Times Magazine | June 2021
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