Keeping Dementia Sufferer Occupied

If you can buy or make a "fidget quilt" it might help. It's a piece of quilted fabric with various items sewn on to fiddle with. If you Google the term you'll see pictures and some for sale.

Can your aunt still physically do things? I ask, because a friend who’d had a desk job career was delighted when an occupational therapist suggested giving him paper, pens, a clip board and files. He ‘wrote’ on the paper and shuffled the papers and files about. It kept him calm and occupied and it didn’t matter that it was just scribbles, he felt needed and useful.

You can knit a ‘twiddle muff’. I used to make them for the local hospital. IIRC there’s a pattern if you google ‘twiddle muff for dementia, Oxford University Hospitals’.

But I do sympathise. My mother couldn’t follow any TV prog. with any sort of plot, so wildlife documentaries were generally a safe bet - except when she started thinking there were polar bears rampaging about upstairs!

One prog. that was a hit, I’m afraid to say, was an American one about enormously fat people - the ones who can’t even walk any more.
My mother would be glued to it, saying, ‘Dear oh dear! Dear oh dear!’ over and over.

The TV was on almost non stop, I’m afraid. Getting her to take any interest in anything else was just a no go. And yet she’d been an avid reader, a knitter and a very skilful dressmaker. So sad.

Colouring & crafts is good too, you can get colouring blankets where you colour in the fabric, colouring books, those bare wooden children's shapes & a few stickers & she can decorate them.
Not so easy to get frustrated, as there's no"right" way to colour or stick stickers on.
Take off any reference to age or children.
Music too, you can get MP3 speaker / players that are dementia friendly (no visible controls to fiddle with ) & you can load a playlist onto them. Music's one of things that stays longest with AD.

Photo albums? Audio books or music?
Do you have any old home cinema stuff you could put into something accessible?

Lots of good suggestions to try here. I hadn't thought about some of those US programmes, she does like to comment on other people's appearance!
She was a very capable office manager in her day, and always up on current affairs, but the news just seems to distress her these days (as it does to many of us!). She not quite at the stage for a twiddle muff yet, she needs something to achieve, so I like the idea of simple craft things, that might help.

My DF with dementia lived alone with carers and I used to take her to a local dementia friendly singing group. Sadly though she became unsafe, turning the hob on, forgetting she had put something in the oven, not locking doors etc. She is now happily settled in a good care home and she's enjoying the company of others and the activities. Difficult decision but she was totally confused with day and night. But the safety aspect and her not realising she wasn't safe was the deciding factor. She loved going to Men in Sheds and working with wood. She likes to look at atlas now as she's always been a good map reader.So finding what she used to enjoy and adapting it helps.

I know you said she can’t do jigsaws any more but you could try those specially for people with dementia. They have about 20 really big pieces.

If you go down the twiddle muff route please make sure the pieces sewn on are very secure because they can be a choking hazard.

What did she do for a job?

I always found people seemed to get quite engrossed with sorting out things like button boxes, or bags of yarn.
A lot of "fiddlers" fiddle because they're looking for things to do.
Can she knit or crochet?
If not, just tidying up the wool might occupy her.

Some of "my" ladies enjoyed undoing the knots, and rewinding bags of jumbled up wool, and tidying up sewing box contents.

Those fiddling and sorting ideas are good Miss Adventure. My DF loved folding carrier bags incredibly neatly.

Check out Creative Carer.org. Heather’s Mum had dementia and she came up with hundreds of ideas to keep her occupied. She now shares all her ideas and tips and is a lovely lady. Our Mums both had dementia and passed away at a similar time.

Plevey08

Those fiddling and sorting ideas are good Miss Adventure. My DF loved folding carrier bags incredibly neatly.

It's quite amazing, the things people can do; and have the patience to do!'

I used to visit a lady who was a typist in her younger years, she was very excited when I gave her a keyboard to type with, it wasn't connected to anything but she enjoyed typing on it just the same.

Music might help. My next door neighbour had dementia and could no longer recognise me or any of her friends.

She could, however, play the piano beautifully,note perfect. She loved listening to music too through some comfortable headphones.

There are long tranquil videos of walks with no commentary, on youtube . Here is one - with an ad to skip at the beginning.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCzafEo2VaQ&utm_source=copilot.com
There are others but this is a start and might be a good companon for someone with dementia - or someone who just wants a mental rest.

Try some programmes for pre-schoolers.
Simple short features and lots of repetition rather than an adult storyline.

My friend loved the teletubbies and actually I quite enjoyed them too watching with her. I’m sure there’s something similar on nowadays.

The issue is, they can’t concentrate for very long as the mind just wanders off to something else, so chances of anything keeping her occupied for a period of time will be a challenge.Im a companion for ladies with early onset dementia.

My Dad likes travel programmes, eg Michael Portillo's train journeys and currently the two Canal Boat series.
One episode recently featured the Anderton Boat Lift, which we'd been to on an excursion a couple of years ago. Dad recognised it.
He's also a fan of Susan Calman, especially her motor home travels. Mum and Dad had a couple of motor homes over the years.

You can get robot dogs and cats. go on amazon to see come of the options.

Some Smart Tvs have various programmes like screen savers. There are ones with various birds flying in and out and watery landscapes.

Counting money, sorting buttons, simple work bench type things. We heard of one man who changed plugs regularly and a woman who folded pillowcases. And a woman who cleaned silver.

We made a box for my Dad that sat on the table near him. Every now and again he would look at it as if he had never seen it before and open it. Inside we had a whole load of things that were relevant to my Dad's life and interests but nothing that would take too much focus and concentration. He would pick things up and examine them and put them down again.

He was a technician and ex-RAF and his box included:

A small photo album of people he loved
A couple of small model aeoplanes
A child's meccano set with big pieces that he could screw together
Pens, pencils and paper to write on
A childs camera (he loved photography all his life)
A book of maps and a small globe
Some knitted gloves and a scarf made by my Sis-in-L
Some of those small squeezy ball things to exercise his fingers
A Broons annual
Other fiddle things that I can't remember now.

The box gave him a choice of what he wanted to do at any time depending on what state he was in.