Links among communication, dementia, and caregiver burden

Dementia is a degenerative syndrome that affects multiple mental functions including cognition and behaviour. Family caregivers of individuals with dementia also experience the devastating effects of the syndrome on their relatives’ memory, language and communication. Currently, Canadian family caregivers provide more than fifty percent of the care for an estimated 500,000 people with dementia. Audiologists and speech-language pathologists need to be cognizant of the expanding communication, hearing and language needs of individuals with dementia and their family caregivers. This paper addresses the complex relationships among communication problems in dementia, the burdens suffered by family caregivers, and the effects of communication education and training programs designed to enhance communication and to minimize caregiver burden. The literature shows clearly that clinicians must include both family caregivers and their relatives with dementia in comprehensive communication care interventions in order to achieve optimal outcomes. Moreover, clinicians must provide education and training to caregivers concerning the use of evidence-derived effective communication, hearing, language and speech strategies to help reduce caregiver burden.