This Forum question was posted by Sharronlivingst.

Hi Sharon,

Although I am not an expert in this area, yes it is apparently common for some patients with Alzheimers to have hallucinations. Hallucinations are often visual or auditory. Although I have no direct experience with this, I think the best thing to do is to acknowledge the person, reassure them and guide them to something pleasant (assuming the hallucination is unpleasant).

Does anyone else have some advice?

Lauren - icommunicate

I took off a few years from my elementary school SLP job and managed an adult day center for people with early Alzheimer's. Several of our folks had visual hallucinations-would see people and animals that were not there. Our strategy was to acknowledge that they did, indeed see this, reassure them that they are safe and won;t be bothered by who/what they see and introduce a distracting fun activity. I think it is important to acknowledge that you do know that they did see something. We found that that was often comforting and did reduce associated anxiety/fear.

I took off a few years from my elementary school SLP job and managed an adult day center for people with early Alzheimer's. Several of our folks had visual hallucinations-would see people and animals that were not there. Our strategy was to acknowledge that they did, indeed see this, reassure them that they are safe and won;t be bothered by who/what they see and introduce a distracting fun activity. I think it is important to acknowledge that you do know that they did see something. We found that that was often comforting and did reduce associated anxiety/fear.