When a person with dementia gets something fundamental wrong — the year it is, your relationship to them — it can be difficult to know what to do. Do you correct them and risk upsetting them? Is it a lie or unethical to go along with it?

Ted Johnson, who chairs the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the Emory School of Medicine, says that playing along is not only OK; it’s often the best thing for both the patient and the caretaker. In the past three years, Johnson and his colleagues have trained 1,500 care partners on how to use basic improv skills.