5 Tips for Encouraging Socialisation for Someone with Dementia

Socialising plays a significant role in ensuring you live a happy and well-balanced life. Whether it’s interacting with family, friends, or even strangers, we would ordinarily engage in some form of socialisation each day. It is important that as we age, our levels of socialisation don’t diminish in order to prevent loneliness occurring, and this is especially true for those living with dementia.

There are numerous benefits to socialising, including reducing stress, improving mood, increasing positivity and motivation, and building lasting connections. For someone living with dementia, as communication may become more challenging, a common concern is social isolation and loneliness occurring. To ensure your loved one remains socially active and maintains a level of interaction, there are some considerations that need to be made. Here we will discuss some top tips for encouraging socialisation for someone living with dementia.

5 Top Tips

Be Prepared

If you want to organise a day out to visit someone with your loved one, or perhaps you have someone coming over to visit, it is important to plan ahead. When living with dementia, there may sometimes be behavioural changes in your loved one or they may experience difficulty in recalling who people are; it may be a good idea, therefore, to make those visiting aware of these changes, so they know what to expect from your loved one.

Showing photographs to your loved one of the people they will be seeing prior to their arrival and explaining who they are can also be a great way to reduce any stress associated with the visit. Explaining carefully and patiently will help your loved one to understand and recognise people, which will reduce any feelings of being overwhelmed or confused.

Choose a Familiar Location

New environments can be stressful for someone living with dementia, so choosing a location which your loved one is already familiar with is advisable. This could be their home, a familiar coffee shop or perhaps even a favourite park. Anywhere your loved one will feel comfortable and happy is a good choice. It is best to avoid places that will be loud or crowded, as this can be stress-inducing. Try to avoid weekends and school holidays to ensure attractions are quieter. If you are looking to visit a local attraction, such as a museum, you can contact them ahead of time to ask for advice, as they can often provide dementia-friendly timings and indicate accessible areas.

Use Prompts

Using prompts can be highly beneficial for sparking conversations and encouraging socialisation. Activities such as looking through a photo album, watching a familiar film together, or listening to a favourite piece of music can all be excellent ways to start conversations and encourage socialisation with your loved one.

Plan Activities

As communication can sometimes be difficult, it can help to participate in activities that encourage socialisation naturally and prevent forced conversations, which can be stressful. Taking part in dementia activities based around reminiscence and sensory exploration is great for encouraging socialisation. Why not ask gentle questions about a familiar place, person or perhaps even use a loved one's perfume and ask what they remember of that smell?

Don’t Force it

It is important to remember not to force socialisation if your loved one is not feeling up to it, as this can sometimes have a negative effect. It may cause stress and worry, which could then prevent further socialisation in the future. Ensure that your loved one feels positive and motivated when encouraging socialisation. Mornings often present better opportunities, as later in the day, your loved one may become more tired and less likely to participate in activities.

There are many different ways to encourage socialisation for someone living with dementia, and it’s important that some level of interaction continues to occur. Whilst it may become more challenging if your loved one becomes less mobile, struggles to recall memories or has communication difficulties, there are still many ways to effectively communicate. Why not try a variety of different activities with your loved one to see which they enjoy and which is the most effective in sparking conversations?