This requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader. For more information click here . This sheet discusses intimacy and sexual issues for people with dementia and their carers. It describes the importance of these issues in their lives and ways to deal with some problems that may arise. Intimacy and sexuality The need for closeness is a very important and natural part of people s lives.
Intimacy is the giving and receiving of love and affection.
It involves caring touch, empathic understanding, comfort in times of need and a feeling of safety in relationships. Like intimacy, sexuality, the feeling of sexual desire and its expression through sexual activity, is a natural expression of human need. However, for many people sexuality goes beyond the narrow concept of sexual intercourse, and is bound up with many of the broader expressions of intimacy, including physical closeness, kissing and hugging. How are intimacy and sexuality affected by dementia People with dementia continue to need caring, safe relationships and touch. However, they will vary in their individual ways of giving and receiving affection, and the ways in which their dementia affects that capacity.