Does anyone have any suggestions on tips for keeping a loved one living with dementia occupied when they can no longer read/follow conversation?
What a fantastic Post! O thank you!
Apologies for what follows!
This is a Huge problem for me and my Mum, as my once "insatiably curious, project-oriented, gadget-loving, gregarious father who, was mad for traveling (with family)in his volkswagon camper, who gardened avidly, DIY'd the house, ran the business side of things, and was a real charmer, went from that to not driving, to not moving much, (a fall, a broken bone) ,being not allowed to use the remote, as he would bother the neighbors, and watching endless documentaries on cable, which fascinated him. Lately, he is not able to follow them and wants to talk about things they remind him of. He still wants to watch the news, but we must explain it all to him, and he can't hold on to that, even.
Two years ago I read him Kipling's Kim, and all the astronomy bits from "Age of Wonder", but now he gets lost. I will do simpler books! I haven't tried talking books, thinking they wouldn't work.
He can't read by himself, not for years. He's had Macular degeneration, and one eye is supposed to be adequate. Apparently he can see better than he can 'process' the images (more than three letters is a muddle). When he goes to church, he cannot make sense out the hubbub of people, and they leave him alone. He is still charming, but needs one on one attention. He has stopped going to church.
I don't think talking books or picture books will work, as his processing of thoughts, and images is going. Music is the saving grace. He loves the music from his early days particularly. It reaches him as nothing else!
I am imagining making him a playlist, like an ipod one, but on a tablet, with clips from youtube of music and also video-(and lectures, which my mother would be interested in) -maybe having this all on a big telly screen that works on bluetooth and wireless headphones. My mother can't cope with gadgets, however. I wonder about running her computer remotely and putting the YouTube things on from my house.
This is hard on my mother of course. She copes by bringing him treats from the kitchen all day, and leaving him in front of the telly. She is 91 and dresses him, bathes him, cooks, and is worn down by being housebound, unable to leave him for more than an hour or so.
I am visiting. I am overwhelmed and weak and ineffective & depressed at this time.
We can not fathom putting him in a home. He is loving and courteous and reasonable, so it is easy to have him here. But we fail, selfishly, to engage him for the entire day. He is utterly dependent on our whims, and time, and energy, to amuse him. Poor Dears! The both of them!