Counseling Older Adults with Dementia Who Are Dealing with Death: Innovative Interventions for Practitioners

As individuals age, they deal with an increasing number of emotional, physical, and environmental losses. One loss older adults encounter is their own and others' deaths. Older adults with dementia may face greater difficulty in understanding and dealing with death-related issues because of cognitive and memory changes. Little literature exists to guide the practice of grief counseling with this population. Thus, two innovative approaches-spaced retrieval and group buddies-will be presented as ways to help individuals with dementia deal with issues around death. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the preliminary usefulness of these techniques with clients.