Activities at home

[Miss KG]

Hi everyone,

I work with people in their homes and am constantly trying to come up with new activities to suit individuals. For some people, I find a lot of things successful, but I have one client who I am really struggling with, and would appreciate any advice or suggestions that you have please.

My lady has aphasia with dementia, so is unable to communicate very well at all. She can answer questions by simply Yes or No, and sometimes repeats words back to me, but we cannot have a conversation. When I try to introduce activities or see if she is interested in helping me with anything, I get no response.

She seems very disinterested and also gives me the impression that she thinks it is not worth it.

I really want to be able to communicate with her and be able to do meaningful things with her to make her days more enjoyable, but I am really not getting very far.

I have enlisted the help of a Speech and Language Therapist, but they say they can't help.

Any ideas anyone, I really want her to enjoy the time we spend together. She doesn't have anyone else.

Thank you so much

 

[lemonbalm]

Hello @Miss KG . How does your lady react to music? Music often seems to reach people who aren't really interested in much else and can lift the mood. Do you know what your lady did earlier in her life? Perhaps something connected with past jobs or hobbies may be useful.

Your lady may be depressed, of course (or perhaps very tired if not sleeping?), in which case her doctor may be able to prescribe something to help if nothing else seems to. Not always the answer but can improve quality of life.

 

[Grannie G]

Hello @Miss KG Welcome to Dementia Talking Point.

If the lady you are caring for has aphasia all I can suggest is you try anything which might prove visually attractive . I have used picture bingo with children with aphasia or snap cards or Happy Families. I`ve also found a game on line where you match the front and back halves of animals which looks good.

Does your lady have any speciall tastes in music? Does she have a family you can ask, even if they live away? Perhaps some musical DVDs of her favourite artists. My husband loved his DVDs of Andrea Boccelli

If she is disinterested and may not think it worthwhile you have a difficult task ahead but all you can do is try. Well done for caring so much.

 

[Izzy]

I wondered if your lady enjoys music. If so then it might be useful to make a playlist for her. I had a personal playlist for my husband on an ipod shuffle. . He wore headphones which had a splitter. This meant I could attach headphones to this and listen at the same time as him. We shared laughs and tears listening to his favourite songs. My hope was that the songs chosen would bring back memories for him.

The website Playlist For Life has lots of advice and suggestion on doing this -

Get started – Playlist for Life

www.playlistforlife.org.uk