My own mother died from early-onset Alzheimers 25 years ago, and now I am helping my wife through her own mother's vascular dementia. As an ex-IT professional I have an interest in technology and its uses, and recently when my mother-in-law Betty was moved to a nearby residential home I started to consider what technology might be of use for Betty and her professional carers.
I looked at what "apps" are out there for Alzheimers sufferers and found lots of 'Brain trainers' and various neurological/academic/diagnosis apps, but very little to aid the memory, stimulation and well-being of the sufferer.
But what I did find was an app in development.. and now that app has made it onto iTunes, and it's free. The app is called "Suvien" and, in the words of the developers, "Suvien helps persons with dementia enjoy memories of their lives and loved ones. They can simply touch a photo to read captions, play songs, watch video or listen to comforting voice messages. It’s designed to be ultra-simple. The content is securely loaded by family members from a web-browser on their computer or iPad."
This is just what I was looking for! We've now been using the app for just over a week. We've uploaded 100 or so digitised images from Betty's photo album, added some video's we have specially made for Betty, and uploaded some of her favourite musical tracks. I'm not going to describe how the app works (you can see that through the iTunes link) but my wife and I had a very successful interactive session with Betty last weekend where she was entranced by the images etc on the screen (and was clicking some of them herself), and recalling many events and people from her past. Her short-term memory loop was broken for more than an hour and Betty thoroughly enjoyed re-living her memories. I'm not suggesting Suvien is the only app option for dementia sufferers, but it's great at helping dementia sufferers (and their carers) re-live happy and comforting memories. And being free (and no ads or in-app purchases either) it has to be highly recommended. (Please note that I have no connection to Suvien other than as an enthusiastic and appreciative user).
I looked at what "apps" are out there for Alzheimers sufferers and found lots of 'Brain trainers' and various neurological/academic/diagnosis apps, but very little to aid the memory, stimulation and well-being of the sufferer.
But what I did find was an app in development.. and now that app has made it onto iTunes, and it's free. The app is called "Suvien" and, in the words of the developers, "Suvien helps persons with dementia enjoy memories of their lives and loved ones. They can simply touch a photo to read captions, play songs, watch video or listen to comforting voice messages. It’s designed to be ultra-simple. The content is securely loaded by family members from a web-browser on their computer or iPad."
This is just what I was looking for! We've now been using the app for just over a week. We've uploaded 100 or so digitised images from Betty's photo album, added some video's we have specially made for Betty, and uploaded some of her favourite musical tracks. I'm not going to describe how the app works (you can see that through the iTunes link) but my wife and I had a very successful interactive session with Betty last weekend where she was entranced by the images etc on the screen (and was clicking some of them herself), and recalling many events and people from her past. Her short-term memory loop was broken for more than an hour and Betty thoroughly enjoyed re-living her memories. I'm not suggesting Suvien is the only app option for dementia sufferers, but it's great at helping dementia sufferers (and their carers) re-live happy and comforting memories. And being free (and no ads or in-app purchases either) it has to be highly recommended. (Please note that I have no connection to Suvien other than as an enthusiastic and appreciative user).
