The value of touch and sensuous experience in dementia care increases as language becomes more difficult to access. When a caregiver and care recipient engage each other through respectful touch, what comes about in the attention to sensuous experience is the mutual appreciation for having a body that the person providing care and the person receiving care can enjoy in joint actions. The provision of this kind of care actually unites caregiver and care recipient in sensuous pleasure in their bodies, which are mutually involved in the actions taking place. When a caregiver uses aromas to stimulate the care recipient’s sense of smell, this brings both caregiver and care recipient together in their experience of that aroma. This is not altogether different from a yoga instructor using lavender essential oils or a washcloth soaked in lavender tincture to induce relaxation at the end of yoga practice. And in many instances, massage and touch can be vitally healing in addition to the sense of smell.
Recognition happens through mutual sensuous engagement across the many sense domains of the body. All the five senses can facilitate this kind of recognition that appreciates that even when memory is gone the person who experiences dementia has a sensate body and is a sentient being who can enjoy her experiences. In fact, because she does not have as a great tendency to wander in time, her experience may serve to remind a caregiver to pay attention to the sensations taking place in the moment. This could be one way that a care recipient offers a creative response to the moment and the fruits of experience that can be enjoyed in it. She connects with and attaches to the sensations she feels, and she invites her caregiver to do the same. These mutual applications for sensation build emotional and spiritual bonds between caregiver and care recipient.
At the time I took care of him, I felt sure that Grandpa Dickey would benefit from warm and nurturing touch. I had just finished reading Tiffany Field’s Touch which discusses the benefits of massage for children and caregivers alike. I made arrangements for grandpa to go with me to see massage therapists each month. Even though he had never done this before in his life, he would come out of the massage session glowing. He would always say how much he enjoyed it. At home, I would massage his neck and ruffle his hair several times each day. He enjoyed lighting candles in the house and smelling the aromas. He enjoyed the smell of coffee in the morning ,and the smells of the foods he ate. And he continued to appreciate being touched at the barber shop or by other persons who were close to him. He also would express appreciation for music he liked, describing the quality of sound that appealed to his ear. “Eagles Wings” remained his favorite during the time I was responsible for driving him to his medical appointments, and he especially liked the Christian Worship band Shane and Shane.
Touch, sound, and aroma were vital ways for grandpa to connect with his world and creatively influence and express appreciation for his environment. He never stopped giving me signals and cues to guide his care, though the signals became less verbally oriented over time and took me more work to decipher and recognize.
