It doesn't always work that way. We get lots of patients with altered mental status (AMS) from a variety of causes, but i have found in my practice that compliance and cooperation seem to be a response connection to honesty, openness.
With diseases that are impacting memory (whether it be Alzheimer’s, prion diseases/CJD, dementia, etc.) or cancer with brain involvement, I’ve found that sometimes the best thing to do is meet them wherever there brain currently is and go along for the ride. Trying to reason with them or force them to accept reality causes them more anxiety, doing more harm than good. By just going along for the ride, they are calmer, leading to cooperation and achieve the desired outcome (whether it be take medicine, eat, drink, go back to their room or bed, etc.)
It requires quick thinking and reaction, but the more conversations I have with people who have memory diseases, the easier it gets to just make it up as I go along. One of my all time favorites: we were staying with my in-laws, helping with my husband’s grandfather, who had terminal cancer. At 1:30 in the morning, I hear grandpa up and moving around. I go check on him. He tells me he wants to check out, doesn’t like this place anymore. Without missing a beat I respond, “I’m so sorry to hear that you aren’t happy with your room. In order to check out, I’m going to need your room key.” He thought about that for a second and said, “Well, I’m not sure where my room key is.” In the most sincere manner I told him, “Oh that’s unfortunate. You can’t check out without turning in your room key. How about you go back to bed? I’ll bet you’ll be able to find your room key after you get some more sleep.” He decided that was a good idea and went back to bed. Slept til 7:30 am, and never asked about checking out again. I guess he changed his mind about the quality of the accomodations. LOL.