How dementia may change sexual relationships

Dementia is an illness that affects all parts of a person's life, and this includes their sex life. You may have been married to someone for decades, but now, changes to their personality might be creating difficulties in the intimate aspects of your relationship.

What's more, if you have had home help in the past, there may have been an incident of a sexual nature that was difficult to deal with. For instance the person with dementia may have thought the help was someone from a previous relationship, and perhaps tried to kiss them. Yet our  home carers in Gloucestershire understand what the illness does to the mind, and how to cope with the changes to the person in your life.

Of course, dementia might affect your partner's sex life in a number of ways. They may be less interested, or more interested in sex. They might even be more capable of expressing their desires, or not as much. While they might lose the ability to communicate in every other aspect of their life, sex might be the last part of the person where they are still their old selves, and where they can reach out to you. Alternatively, they might become sexually aggressive, and they may not be careful about respecting others people's consent. As the illness progresses, they might also be incapable of providing consent themselves.

Should a partner with dementia make advances to one of our home carers in Gloucestershire, they would defuse the situation in a way that respects the dignity of the person being cared for. After all, it is likely only the dementia that has led to this behaviour. The person coping with the disease has to deal with the consequences of the symptoms, and being humiliated will only distress them further. Our workers may recognise that it is best to stay in another room until the mood has passed in the person with dementia. Above all, there is no need for you to feel guilty, as we are used to these situations, and by understanding them, we know how to deal with them.

With regard to the conduct of our home carers in Gloucestershire, we recognise that vulnerable adults can be taken advantage of - and therefore take every measure to ensure that our carers sensitively and professionally deal with any inappropriate sexual behaviour. Thus, our rigorous approach to recruitment, security checks and training eradicates the possibility of someone being sexually mistreated or misled into an exploitative relationship. The person you care about will be in safe hands.

You can find out further information about this subject at http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=129.

Editor’s Note: Bramble Home Care (http://www.bramblehomecare.co.uk) are represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Email: info@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.