I've been working with Alzheimer patients recently in our facility. I've noticed that they don't get many visitors. I think it is because their families don't know what to say to them? Do any of your families have Alzheimers? So, the other part of the story...There is a lady that was admitted a couple of weeks ago. She is the mother of someone I've known for a long time. She still has what they call high functioning Alzheimers. I was trying to think of some things I could do to interact with her. I've invented a simple game to stimulate her thoughts & have fun communicating with her, but, it isn't childish or demeaning to her age group. I'm hoping this helps with some interaction with families & their loved ones with this disease. If you have someone in your family with Alzheimers do you think a game that stimulates memory & communication would help with your loved one and give you & them some quality time together?
My grandmother who passed away several years ago had alzhemiers. It is a terrible disease and it is really hard to deal with. Over the course of 10 years or so I slowly had to watch her forget everything and everybody she had known. Her last year alive was very tough, she lost the ability to talk and it was very hard to visit with her. Everytime I would stop in to visit she had a blank look on her face, almost as though she was frigtened by me. Her last week alive was very tough and I just couldn't bring myself to visit with her, I still feel horrible about it every day, but at the time I honestly felt that I was scaring her by visiting. I wasn't just watching a person who I loved fade away, I was also watching her life (memories) fade away, and that was probablly the hardest part. I am sure the game would be a help, I know that when my gram was still able to function I would just visit with her for hours at a time and listen to her stories about her childhood. She had lost almost everything she remembered except for her childhood in Ohio.
