Memory books- are they helpful?

[Lisa74]

My Gran has VaD. I'm not sure what stage it is at at the moment but I think probably early, possibly mid- she cannot remember what happened earlier in the day, cannot remember where she lives and sometimes forgets who we (my parents and I) are. She confabulates often and imagines that people from the TV are coming to visit her or that there are babies sleeping upstairs yet she can do some things like make a cup of tea with assistance or chat about real things that happened in the past. She has got worse recently and will ask where her mother and father are or say she's glad to finally be out of hospital (she's not had an overnight stay in hospital for years).

Recently she has started asking questions repetitively- where do I live? where is my Mum? etc. She asks in a compulsive way but the second I answer she asks the question again so I was wondering whether memory books are of any use in this sort of situation? If I wrote the answer to her questions do you think she would look at the answers? What do other people do for memory books/aids?

xx

 

[FifiMo]

Hiya Lisa,

To me, memory books are more to do with putting together someone's life story than prompting with answers to repeated questions. I think the problem is that if the information is not being understood, then your answer doesn't really matter, the question will just happen over and over again. I know this can be very frustrating, especially when the same question is asked over and over again. I remember when I was in my teens being at my grandmother's who had dementia. My parents had gone out to a silver wedding, so we were staying with gran for the evening. The evening started with "where's your mum and dad?" to which I answered "they've gone to Alice and Bill's silver wedding - do you remember Alice and Bill?" and she would say of course I remember them. Then it was the same question all over again. Then she seemed to think I was my mother and my little sister was a baby sleeping in the next room. She said non-stop "Don't leave the baby through there like that - go check on her" So, silly me, I would get up and let on I was off to check on the baby. This happened hundreds of times throughout the evening - I was exhausted!! Nothing, absolutely nothing, was getting through to her. LOL

One thing I did think about was where you said that your gran still remembers things from the past. Maybe you could make a memory book together, where you can capture her stories - maybe look out some old photographs and put them in the book. I have heard people say they wish they had taken the time to do just this, because it is a lost opportunity once the person cannot remember any more or is no longer around. Have a look online for some nice scrapbooking kits that would be ideal for this if it is something you'd like to try. Maybe your gran would also like to look at things like the pretty papers that you can get and nice embellishments etc. It would also then stimulate conversation with your grandmother wouldn't it? Keep all the speaking going as long as possible etc.

Hope this helps,

Fiona

 

[penny36]

What a great idea, Fiona!

I might try doing that with my mum.

Bless you for that.
xxx

PS: Big hugs for you, too, Lisa ((()))
xxx