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 social support to match the changing abilities and needs of the person on the other side of the social equation requires commitment and flexibility. The good part about doing it is that it is actually good for your brain as well.

Learning how to socially interact with people living with dementia is not rocket science. It simply takes a willingness to modify old habits, change out old routines, and learn some new ways of training yourself and your brain to adapt and communicate.

Simple techniques like offering the person time to process, making sure you are within visual range, pausing for responses, offering your hand in a friendly, familiar way, using a supportive stance, sequencing your cues, using either/or options for choices, and using positive action starters rather than yes/no questions all play a role. These techniques are outlined in greater detail in Positive Approach® to Care methodologies.*

Other Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Dementia

Notice and use positive coping strategies to manage distress. Start by pausing and using diaphragmatic breathing.

Get the just right amount and duration of sleep. Consider getting any sleep issues investigated and practice good sleep hygiene.

Get or stay socially connected in meaningful and enjoyable ways. Sometimes animals, children, or environments are good ways to connect with people as well. Exercise with pleasure.

Get your body and your brain to do something active and invigorating each day. Try dancing with a partner or walking the dog.

Eat a healthy diet. Eat moderately, eliminate junk food, and replace intake with doing something of value.**

*US Against Alzheimer’s **Teepa Snow, dementia expert with 40 years of clinical and academic experience provides training and consulting for healthcare professionals and families. Her company, Positive Approach to Care® provides online and in-person services, certification training and products to professionals, family members, and people living with brain changes. NOTE: The research community believes it will be possible to prevent or control Alzheimer’s within the next 10 years if adequate research funding and other reforms to accelerate the drug pipeline are put in place. If you would like to make a donation, visit https:// www.usagainstalzheimers.org and click Donate.