Daily Sitka Sentinel

Touch Therapy is Topic For Brave Heart Talk

By TOM HESSE
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Touch will be the focus of Wednesday’s Brave Heart Volunteers Senses Series – a six-part series that focuses on how dementia affects the senses.
    Occupational therapist Mo McBride will speak at Wednesday’s noon session at the Pioneers Home manager’s house.
    McBride, a hands-on therapist who works “from birth till death” on patients of all ages, said touch can be an important factor in managing dementia.
    “Touch is another form of memory,” she said. “When you pick up something you’re familiar with, for some people it brings back a memory.”         The value of that, McBride said, is that touch can be a way of grounding dementia patients with something that connects them to their long-term memory.
    “If someone did a lifetime of work with their hands, you find out those things they did. Like if someone sewed you can get fabric and thread and put those things in their hands,” McBride said. “And those will cue into things with long-term memories. And long-term memories are usually pretty solid with people. It helps to bring back the person, so to speak.”
    By doing that, McBride explained, someone with dementia can focus in on the memories that are strongest and it can help them have extended conversations rather than dealing with short-term memories which are harder for the brain to handle.
    “Short-term is where we have the most problems,” she said. But long-term memories can be associated with other things.
    “It’s like when you walk into a room and you smell bread baking, it may take you to another time.”
    Additionally, dementia patients can have heightened senses of touch as their brain functions deteriorate.
    “They can feel things sometimes that are more heightened because their other senses are diminished,” McBride said. “So sometimes they can find touches overly unpleasant and other times it can be very comforting to them.”
    That’s why, she said, some patients with dementia diseases like Alzheimer’s do better when they have something they can hold in their hand.
    “Sometimes if you put something in their hands they’ll start kneading it or fiddling with it,” McBride said. “They do that because it tends to calm their body.”
    Another important component of touch as it pertains to dementia is as a communicative tool. McBride said as the dementia worsens, it can make it harder for patients to communicate, and touch is a way of filling in that gap.
    “Touch is the most important nonverbal communication you have. Because you can put your hand on someone and let them know you’re there. Different types of hand touch on somebody can mean different things,” McBride said. “If you get very good nonverbal communication going then it can be a lot easier for someone with dementia.”
    In her talk, McBride will discuss the importance of touch and techniques people can use. The Wednesday session is the third in the Brave Heart Volunteers six-part series. For more information contact Brave Heart Volunteers at 747-4600.