They are confused about what day it is or where they are.
4 min read
Correcting the date or place repeatedly rarely sticks and often distresses. Judge each case by risk: if the belief is harmless, let it stand and join them where they are. If it leads to risk — trying to drive to a job they left decades ago — you need a practical plan, not a factual argument.
What to try
1Tell them once, kindly, and watch what happens. If it lands, you are done. If it does not, do not repeat it — work out what the belief is actually about instead.
2Agree with the emotion even where you cannot agree with the fact: "It sounds like an important meeting."
3Make the environment do the orienting for you — a large clear clock, a day-date display, curtains open in the morning.
4Use neutral bridges when you need time: "Let me find out."
What to avoid
Saying it again, and again, when it has already not landed and they are getting upset. Telling them the date or where they are once, kindly, is ordinary conversation.
Untruths that create new obligations, such as promising someone is arriving tomorrow.
This does not apply to everything
Letting a harmless mistake about the date stand is one thing. There is a separate set of subjects where the truth is never softened, whatever the distress — they are listed under “Where honesty is not negotiable” below. They are held in one place for the whole app rather than restated here, because a list that is restated is a list that shrinks.
How this guide was made
Written by
Written independently for Riparo. It is not copied or adapted from any organisation’s material.
Evidence checked
Some key points have been checked against published national dementia guidance; others have not been.
Reviewed by
Not clinically reviewed. No clinician has checked this guide.