How do I cope with sundowning?

In general, the first thing we always want to do is make sure that our person is safe so you can’t be right up in their grill trying to intervene because that’s typically going to make it a lot worse. Instead, you can provide some distance and it’s visual supervision but you also want to make sure that they’re not near anything like a potential tripping hazard, so ensure their safety first. Then, if you think of it as a ladder, this is a really good technique so if your person is, let’s say on an emotional scale they’re at a hundred, then that’s not the time to say “let’s talk in our quiet indoor voice, let’s listen to some classical music” because it just does not resonate. Instead, it’s not like you’re going to start yelling at them, but you want to really acknowledge them like “you look really upset, how can I help”. They may not even be able to hear you in that moment but if they’re pacing, for example, you can walk parallel to them and you can start slowing your walking down a little bit so that their pacing slows down a little bit because people will typically mimic.