Understanding aggression

Like so many dementia symptoms, aggression is often misunderstood, leading to inappropriate interventions. It is popular to portray people with dementia as angry and out of control, aggressive and unmanageable, frightening and dangerous. Extreme examples of aggression that lead to injury or death make for good headlines, but in reality all this does is proliferate stigma and the idea that people with dementia should be locked away, drugged and forgotten about.

Medicating someone who is simply trying to express themselves only masks their symptoms rather than getting to the cause, hence why I am wholly against the use of antipsychotics, as I wrote about here. Indeed best practice now is that they should only be used in the most extreme circumstances, and only after every possible alternative has been explored.

I don’t think that routinely locking away everyone with dementia is the answer either, a view that is backed up by the Depravation of Liberty Safeguards legislation. So how do we approach aggression in people with dementia, and what is the best way of alleviating it?

My dad went through a period of aggressive behaviour during his time in an elderly mentally infirm hospital unit and during his first spell in a care home. Indeed, his aggression was sited a major reason why that residential home, despite being a specialist dementia care setting, couldn’t cope with him. At one point dad had reportedly tried to strangle another resident, and clearly the home were unable to help him to reduce his aggression or indeed keep their other residents safe.

Prior to developing dementia, my father was a man of calmness and kindness. He was a pacifist and hated violence of any kind. In short, he was a gentle giant – or at least to me as a small child he looked like a giant! Once the TIA’s (mini-strokes) set into his brain, they created damage that began to destroy the calm and gentle aspects of his personality, and yet interestingly my dad never displayed any aggression towards us, his family.

A lot is written about ‘challenging behaviour’, aggression being a notable component of that. I would turn the idea of ‘challenging behaviour’ on its head however, and suggest that the approaches we use influence the outcomes we see. It’s easy to blame someone’s dementia and label them as challenging. It involves far more thought and consideration to examine that behaviour, look at the circumstances of it and understand what is behind it.

For example, why was my father aggressive with staff and residents, but not with us? You could look at the fact that he recognised and loved us, and that we didn’t irritate him or order him around. But I think the biggest factor is that, without realising it, we were probably the ones giving him the person-centred care he needed. We knew him, we knew what he liked, and as a result he felt familiarly and security. He didn’t feel aggressive because he didn’t feel he had to fight for what he wanted or needed.

Imagine for a moment not being able to explain how you are feeling or what you need. Words may tumble out, but those around you cannot understand what you are saying and don’t do what you are trying to explain that you need or want. You may be in an alien environment with people you don’t know. You become confused, annoyed, angry and perhaps eventually aggressive. The parts of your brain that previously gave you your self-control have been damaged, the checks and balances are no longer there, and the slightest thing can trigger a reaction.

One of the great downsides to communal establishments for care, be they hospitals or care homes, is that people from many different backgrounds, with different dementias or indeed other health problems, are mixing together. Sometimes friendships are made and happiness is found, but often people irritate each other, and because they cannot explain themselves in the way they want, they become aggressive.

Aggression is generally a sign of an unmet need, a cry for help, a reaction to an environment, individual or circumstance. It can be affected by emotions, infections or other health conditions, side-effects of medications, a lack of understanding of time and space, and even seasonal changes in the weather (for example heat can often produce a shorter temper).

Trying to identify the cause is about understanding the person.  Looking at the circumstances surrounding an aggressive episode, assessing that person’s health and wellbeing, and analysing previous routines and the history of their life prior to developing dementia. Through these investigations you may well then find the answer to resolving their aggression, because you should be identifying the things in their life that can bring them comfort, the changes that you can make to what you or other individuals are doing, and the impact any environmental factors are having.

Aggression isn’t just reserved for those who are apparent ‘strangers’ to a person with dementia. Just because my dad wasn’t aggressive towards his family doesn’t mean that all people with dementia aren’t aggressive towards their loved ones. The progression of dementia can mean that otherwise close family members aren’t recognised, and all those same feelings of frustration and anger can emerge.

Families, however, do have an advantage as they are uniquely placed to try and find the key to providing calm in their loved one’s life. No one knows the person with dementia better, and even when you feel the disease has taken the person you know and turned them into a stranger, with patience, persistence, love and compassion you will find the one thing that will restore that connection.

If I could tell you what that key is I gladly would, but our uniqueness means it is individual to each person.  What I can tell you, however, it that aggression doesn’t have to be an untreatable ‘monster’ in the room with you and your loved one. It isn’t an inevitable part of all forms of dementia, and it can be alleviated. Support in the methods of person-centred care are vital, as is access to anything and everything that constitutes therapeutic dementia care. Most of all, however, people with aggressive behaviour need those around them to understand, listen, offer support and be constantly available. Being judgemental, avoiding an aggressive person, or labelling them as too challenging to help isn’t going to give them any quality of life whatsoever. Understanding aggression is about understanding the person – who they were, are now and will be in the future.

Until next time...

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