Alzheimer’s Entertainment - Thursday Thirteen

What can you do to keep Alzheimer’s patients occupied at Christmas time?  It depends on where they are in the Alzheimer’s spectrum, how much they realize, can communicate or move around.  However, here are a few suggestions  (posted on Wednesday so you can plan for Thursday, Christmas Day.)

1. Let him/her help prepare the meal with simple tasks, such as tearing bread for dressing, stirring, snipping, reading recipes…and reminiscing while doing it.
2. Set the table for Christmas breakfast/brunch or dinner.
3. Fold napkins for the meal…and other meals during the holidays.
4. Watch tree trimming activities.
5. Sing along with CDs or simply listen to Christmas carols.
6. Watch holiday movies on DVD.
7. Help make Christmas decorations for the tree and various rooms.
8. Play card and board games if they’re able.
9. Put jigsaw puzzles together.  They may need simple ones with large pieces.
10. Look at picture books with holiday scenes.
11. Help put together Christmas scrapbooks.
12. Help wrap gifts.
13. Go on a ride with you to see the colored lights.

Adapt these to fit your needs and that of the Alzheimer’s patient.  Glancing through this list may give you ideas for others you can do with your family member.

(Century Novelty image)

Giveaway

Cardmaking, whether from fabric, mixed media or solely paper, gains attention as we approach the holidays.  These may be greeting cards, thank you notes, invitations, and place cards for parties.

This also is a project Alzheimer’s patients often can participate in.  Even if they can’t manipulate the cardmaking materials, they often can choose colors and pictures.  They may simply like being included in the family activity, even though they cannot verbalize why. 

 Mother often sat beside me when I wrote, sewed, did craft activities.  She chatted (yes, often asking the same question over and over), played with objects and materials I placed in front of me and enjoyed the feeling she was “helping” me.

For those who enjoy giveaways as well as making cards, stop by Linette’s She Knows Parties Close to My Heart Giveaway for Making Handmade Holiday Cards and Invitations.  (Linette’s giveaway runs through Nov. 21)

Do you have any special techniques for cardmaking that combine fabric and other media?  I enjoy making and receiving handmade cards. 

Crafts for Alzheimer’s Patients

Alzheimer’s patients, at least while they are still mobile, can use their hands, and have some connection with reality, enjoy participating in crafts.  Even those who can no longer participate often enjoy watching.

Susan S. wrote me an inquiry about crafts for patients with dementia who live in nursing homes.

Our church group gos once a month to a home that has people with dementia. We go there to do crafts with them I have so much fun.  Can you help me with some of the crafts that I can do with them? Tell me what kind of things that they can do. Thank you.

Do you have any suggestions to help Susan?  I have worked with assisted living residents and dementia patients in a nursing home in scrapbooking and family history/memory projects.  My grandchildren participated in crafts activities when we’d visit my mom.  She no longer could be involved, yet she seemed to enjoy watchiing.

AlzheimersNotes.com

As I gaze at the colorful foliage of autumn around my New Hampshire home, I’m reminded of my mother’s love of this time of year.  We were surrounded by pasture and woodlands at the farm where I grew up and where Mother lived for more than 50 years. 

She always called our attention to the autumn colors in the woods and field and garden.  Some corn stalks lingered in the field beyond the barn.  Pumpkins and squash, ready for picking, added color to the garden near the house. 

As Mother developed Alzheimer’s, she still enjoyed the autumn leaves and harvest.  I recall one autumn of taking her for drives through the colorful countryside near her home.  She talked about that for days afterward, whenever she remembered.  It was an event that still brings me pleasure when I think of the joy it gave her.

Are there autumn and harvest activities you can participate in with your Alzheimer’s family member?  Perhaps they’re only able to be an observer, and for short periods.  But their momentary joy, which may surface days later, makes it all worthwhile.

The Health and Wellness channel celebrates harvest time as Theme Week this month.  Karen is hosting and  has compiled a list of blogs and posts at Pink Ribbon Review.

I also have another autumn themed post here at Alzheimer’s Notes, Enjoy Autumn Creations With the Arts Bloggers.

(Amazon image)

(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

AlzheimersNotes.com

QuiltingAndPatchwork.com

Join the Arts Bloggers for fall creations and other projects.  These may be activities your Alzheimer’s family member may enjoy as well.  If he/she can’t participate, watching you often provides pleasure, too.  My mom enjoyed anything that had to do with the colorful autumn leaves.

Celebrate fall colors
Tangled Thread is inspired by fall colors to create a new fall flower wall hanging.

Change Your Writing Tools
Encouragement to use differernt writing tools in your journal

Layers Upon Layers
Come see some of the work that has arrived at the home of the “Ties That Bind” collaborative art project, raising money for ovarian cancer research. 

Make It Pink Challenge at CraftStylish
Upload your pink craft project to CraftStylish and they’ll donate to breast cancer research
Men in Quilting - Does Grandfather Make Quilts?
After discussing the role of women in quilting for so long, Mary Emma at Quilting and Patchwork looks into the role of men in this art.
Scrapbook More than Your Holidays to Preserve Precious Memories
Don’t let any more family gatherings or everyday special moments fade away because no one thought to bring a camera. Capture the moments in photos. Then bring them back to life on a scrapbook page. Here’s some inspiration from Eileen.

Enjoy!  Do you have any autumn creations to share?

(Amazon image)

(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

AlzheimersNotes.com

“Take pictures of my Alzheimer’s family member!  I’d never want to do that,” you say. However, this can be enjoyable, both for you and your Alzheimer’s patient.  I’m pleased I have now, a series of photos of Mother and Auntie during those years.  Many of Mother’s I’ve placed in  a scrapbook, calling it Legacy of Love.

Included are photos of my grandchildren visiting their great grandmother and participating in activities and special events with her at the nursing home.  The photos bring back special memories for them.

Also, at the nursing home, the staff took photos of the residents (with the families permission).  When I coordinated a scrapbooking program with some of the residents, we used these photos.  How much fun they had looking at and recognizing (for the most party) the photos of themselves as we selected them for inclusion in this project.

So, keep your camera handy.  You may find you enjoy having these photos for projects and memories.

(Amazon image)

(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

AlzheimersNotes.com

As I consider the activities used with Alzheimer’s patients of my mother’s era, as well as movies shown and music played, I realize these may change as a younger generation, essentially Baby Boomers, reach the Alzheimer’s stage.  They won’t recognize some of the movies and music, will enjoy some of the same activities, but many different ones, too.

I recall visiting Mother and finding the residents entranced by World War II era and earlier movie stories.  They sang songs that Mother sang to us as children and from her earlier years. 

Languages May Differ

Also, languages spoken in nursing homes may vary, too.  There will be more residents from other countries, who have learned English here, but still recognize their native tongues which are different from the earlier generations.  The staff may need to have knowledge of languages other than English to communicate.

Already nursing homes find there are differences with the newly admitted residents over those of 10 or more years ago.  

What have you found, if you work in a nursing home?

©2008 Mary Emma Allen

AlzheimersNotes.com

Art often is as an activity for Alzheimer’s patients.  This might include acrylic or water color painting, shaping with clay, coloring with crayons or markers, quiltmaking, sketching, and mixed media.  It depends on the stage of the patient whether they can do much or even comprehend.

However, many patients in the earlier stages of Alzheimer’s find enjoyment and relaxation in this form of creativity.   Many do amazingly well with assistance.

Are you preserving this art?

But it’s not good, you think.  It doesn’t have value.

However, it has memories and leaves a legacy.    My mother-in-law didn’t have Alzheimer’s but was nearly blind.  We didn’t realize until after her death how many water color paintings she had done during group activities at the assisted living home.  And how lovely they are.

One a grandson framed.  Another my daughter used as a design for a quilt hanging.  Others we’re copying so family members can have their own.  Also, we’re considering making notepaper and postcards of all of them. 

These will give her children, grandchildren, and great grands something of her artistic legacy.  Mum had never done any painting before.  So we’ve seen a facet of her through this that we wouldn’t have.

So…preserve the legacies that come as serendipities.

(Amazon image)

(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

AlzheimersNotes.com

Among the movies shown for entertainment at nursing homes (or in your home), have these included any starring Paul Newman?  Will Alzheimer’s residents, if they comprehend the news on television, realize he passed away of cancer?

When my mom resided in a nursing home, I often visited to find the residents watching movies.  They might not be entirely cognisant of the story line, but they sometimes did recognize the actors and mention their names. 

(Incidentally, in one report about Paul Newman’s retirement from acting in 2007, it said he supposedly mentioned memory difficulty as one of the reasons.  No one has implied he had dementia or Alzheimer’s, but decreasing memory from other causes can result in changes in one’s life.)

(Amazon DVD image)

(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

AlzheimersNotes.com

Autumn - the time of year my mother enjoyed.  She took walks with us children, engaged in activities, cooked foods, and celebrated birthdays (mine in October and hers in November).  She and my dad were married in November, and she always enjoyed the autumn flowers they had for their wedding…crysanthemums.

When she developed Alzheimer’s, I tried to engage in autumn activities with her.  So this time of year is one of beauty and nostalgia.

Here are some activities you might enjoy with your family.  Perhaps your Alzheimer’s member can join in, too, or at least watch you.

1. Carve pumpkins
2. Pick apples
3. Make apple dishes such as applesauce, pies, and crisp
4. Take short drives midst autumn scenery
5. Rake leaves into piles the children jump into
6. Drink apple cider and munch on donuts
7. Make Halloween costumes
8. Read autumn stories
9. Draw autumn pictures
10. Make collages by cutting pictures from magazines
11. Create an autumn scrapbook
12. Tell ghost stories
13. Gather leaves and press them

What do you do in the autumn?  What are favorite activities in your family?  Does your Alzheimer’s family member join you?

(Amazon image; click for puzzle details)

(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen