Top Tips for Causes of Stress in People with Dementia
Stress is rarely caused by one thing — it’s a web, not a single thread.
April is Stress Awareness Month and every Top Tips Tuesday we’ve been focusing on stress and people with dementia.
Here are 20 Top Tips for identifying potential causes of stress in people with dementia:
- Think about health factors (pain, infection, constipation, dehydration).
- Watch for UTIs (Urinary Tract Infections) – sudden behaviour changes may be a clue.
- Consider medication effects or interactions.
- Notice co-morbidities like diabetes, arthritis or heart conditions.
- Think about frailty and fatigue.
- Explore environmental stressors: noise, clutter, lighting, temperature.
- Review care-worker interactions – tone, rushing, touch, body language.
- Consider loss of choice and control or too many choices.
- Think about boredom or lack of meaningful occupation.
- Look for over-stimulation (busy lounges, televisions, alarms).
- Consider under-stimulation – long periods of inactivity.
- Explore disorientation in time or place.
- Reflect on identity threats – embarrassment, shame or feeling infantilised.
- Notice incontinence triggers – urgency, fear, or lack of privacy.
- Include sensory changes – visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory.
- Think about perception issues – flooring patterns, shadows, mirrors.
- Consider relationship dynamics – conflict, misunderstandings, loss.
- Reflect on Tom Kitwood’s Equation – unmet psychological needs.
- Explore emotional memory from earlier life.
- Remember: causes are usually multiple, not singular.
Next time, in the final Top Tips in this series, we’ll be focusing on Top Tips for supportive responses to stress in people with dementia.
The above Top Tips are taken from my course Dementia: Behaviour – A Challenge of a Gift and its accompanying E-book.
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