One day we were visiting Dad when the staff had to use Lavendar Spray on him.
Actually, I think they used lavender on him fairly frequently when he first moved in. One of the reasons I liked this establishment was the fact they used alternative therapies with the clients. Their motto was to limit reliance on medication where drugs were not required.
I failed to ask a few pertinent questions, such as which alternatives, who was their consultant, what were their qualifications etc, etc.
Basically this place used aromatherapy, which meant a lot of lavender oil, and distraction techniques.
Unfortunately Dad wasn't exactly distract-able. At this point in time he was still aware enough to know he was not where he wanted to be. Home. With mum.
He still recognised the immediate family when we visited, even if it required a minute or two of prompting to get the actual name straight. He could also, occasionally, identify some members of the extended whanau. When friends visited, he usually didn't know who they were, but he pretended to.
That's one thing Dad was good at, making anyone who came to see him feel so welcome, like a long lost friend. It did take a few minutes for some visitors to click he had no idea who they were and was not keeping up with the conversation.
If Dad did get himself worked up into a state the staff would attempt distraction techniques and if that was looking unsuccessful they'd combine this strategy with spraying lavendar oil into the air around him. Always talking quietly and trying to get him onto some other thought.
I'm not sure how much the lavendar contributed to Dad eventually returning to his room, grumping all the way.
Of course, the Lavendar Spray technique to settle a stubborn Alzhiemers sufferer like Dad did not always work. On one occasion that I know of, because I was present, the staff decided to attempt some heavy handed tactics, which resulted in me and mum being upset and Dad using his walking stick as a weapon.
Fortunately common sense did prevail and everybody backed off till we had Dad sufficiently calmed down. It was fairly obvious the best remedy for Dad was Mum staying right beside him.
Personally I would have preferred if they also utilised homeopathy. They could have called in a homeopath, done a full consult on Dad and given him homeopathics.
But, because homeopaths are more expensive than aromatics Dad got to smell of a lot of lavendar spray
