Cleveland Clinic psychologist Cynthia Van Keuren explains Parkinson’s psychosis, including caregiver communication, safety concerns, treatment challenges, and supportive care strategies.
Transcript
So sometimes the person who is living with the psychosis is not able to actively participate in their care. They may not be able to recognize that there is a problem or to ask for help.
So the individual with the psychosis may also be feeling paranoid about their healthcare providers or about their caregivers, and may not accurately be reporting what’s going on. They might be reluctant to tell anybody about it.
So as a caregiver, please make sure that you have the appropriate release of information to stay in communication with the healthcare team. You are in the best position to advocate for that person and to help keep them safe. And you don’t have to do that alone.
So please make sure that you’re in communication if you notice an abrupt change in the person’s behavior. The person with Parkinson’s is behaving in a way that you find unsafe, or behaving bizarrely, and reach out for some guidance when it comes to that.
Be sure to be as well educated as you can on psychosis and on its management. As the caregiver, you’re in the best position to encourage the person with Parkinson’s to seek help and seek support, and you are in a better position to do that if you know what might be available to them.
As the caregiver, you might also have a shared or common language with the person with Parkinson’s and just know how to talk to them, how to reassure them, and to say, “Here’s what I would like to discuss with the doctor. Here’s what I am curious about,” making it easier for them to go along with that.
If the person continues to refuse treatment, doing what’s reasonable within the environment to keep them safe and to reduce risk. So, for example, visual hallucinations are more common in areas with dim lighting. You may be able to optimize lighting to keep the person feeling safe and reducing some of these misperceptions that they may be having.
Other things that might keep them safe in the environment in terms of, again, not having those misperceptions or hearing things that aren’t necessarily there.
And if the person is making some decisions that are feeling unsafe, if they are making poor decisions related to eating, drinking, staying in the house, dressing appropriately for the weather, you may need to seek more urgent support. And again, your providers might be a resource for that as well.
