More activity ideas for March

Activities Directors, other healthcare professionals, and caregivers. Do you need more activity ideas for March,then visit this blog for some days for celebration than lend themselves to activity ideas.

As always the author of this blog takes these day celebrations and translates them into activity ideas for those with Alzheimer's disease, related dementias or for anyone in long term care.

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Get Free Supplies For Your Nursing Home

Activities Directors, other healthcare professionals, and caregivers, do you a small budget for supplies?

Would you like to get items for free?

Do you have items you no longer use, but are stil in decent shape?

This could be the answer-Freecycle

Read all about it

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Activities for March

Activities Directors, other healthcare professionals and caregivers visit this site Read her
ideas

As you know special days weeks and months can add so much to the life of a person with Alzheimer's disease,related dementias and others in long term care
Thanks Karen

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Advances for Alzheimer's, Outside the Lab

Activities Directors, other healthcare professionals, and caregivers. Here is further validation for something we already know about music and dementia
Time Magazine
They sit demurely in rows of plastic chairs, hands in their laps, awaiting instructions. They have been dressed carefully by their spouses and relatives in ankle-long frocks or neat cardigans, with crisply knotted ties — the overly formal style of the aged

Organizing this unlikely choir is Chreanne Montgomery-Smith, who runs support groups for the Newbury branch of Britain's Alzheimer's Society. On cue, the 40 or so Alzheimer's and dementia patients join hands and begin singing in unison — a tentative rendition of Amazing Grace. They remember most of the words and their chorus fills the hall. Montgomery-Smith is certain that the music helps bring her patients' thoughts — ravaged by dissonance and dislocation — into harmony

You can see how they become lucid....read the whole article

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Alzheimer Patient’s Prayer

As an Activities Director, other healthcare professional, or caregiver here is something you may want to remember

Senior Home Care Blog
Pray for me I was once like you
Be kind and loving to me that’s how I would have treated you
Remember I was once someone’s parent or spouse
I had a life and a dream for the future
Speak to me; I can hear you even if I don’t
understand what you are saying
Speak to me of things in my past of which I can still relate
Be considerate of me, my days are such a struggle
Think of my feelings because I still have them and
can feel pain. Treat me with respect because
I would have treated you that way
Think of how I was before I got Alzheimer’s
I was full of life; I had a life, laughed and loved you
Think of how I am now, my disease distorts
my thinking, my feelings, and my ability to respond
but I still love you even if I can’t tell you
Think about my future because I used too
Remember I was full of hope for the future just like you are now
Think how it would be .......Reaad the whole prayer

For more dementia information, click here
For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here
For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here
For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Quilting, pottery and computer games 'may cut risk of dementia'

You as an activities director, other healthcare professional or caregiver should find this article to be of interest
Telegraph.co.uk

Taking up hobbies such as quilting, pottery and even playing computer games in later life may substantially cut the risk of dementia, a new study suggests.
By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Crafts and other activities which exercise the brain, including reading novels and computer games, can all have a protective effect on the mind and help prevent memory loss, the study shows.

By contrast, watching television for hours on end significantly increased the chance of suffering problems, the research found.

Previous studies have shown that those with mentally demanding jobs and high levels of education were less likely to suffer the memory problems associated with the condition.

Researchers found that those with stimulating occupations were less at risk, even when they had physical damage to their brain cells.

The latest research will be seen as further proof that so-called "brain training" machines, such as the Nintendo DS advertised by Nicole Kidman, can help to delay brain..........read the whole article

For more dementia information, click here

For Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Another great sensory activity for those with dementia

Activities directors, other healthcare professinals and caregivers. In case you missed this activity on Alzheimer's Activities Expert , here it is again

Today we will discuss a sensory activity for those with dementia and other lower functioning people. However those who are higher functioning can also enjoy this activity.

Also this activity can be enjoyed all year long by adding or subtracting items specific to certain holidays or seasons.

This is a sensory matching game of sorts. Thus you will have to have two of everything.

You will want to have contrast among the items

Start with................read the whole post

For more dementia information, click here

For more Alzheimer's and dementia activities, click here

For information on being the best caregiver you can be, click here

For a great resource for those with dementia, caregivers and healthcare professinals, click here

Facts from 1950

Quick Facts

Activities directors, other healthcare professionals, and caregivers, here is some fun information you can use for talk
What Things Cost in 1950:
Car: $1,750
Gasoline: 27 cents/gal
House: $14,500
Bread: 14 cents/loaf
Milk: 82 cents/gal
Postage Stamp: 3 cents
Stock Market: 235
Average Annual Salary: $3,800
Minimum Wage: 75 cents per hour......click here for more info

For dementia information, click here

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Another great dementia activity

Alzheimer's Activities Expert

We are going to digress for this activity using large colorful pictures of babies doing different things.

This is another ideal activity to be done with the flash cards, “Adorable Photographs of Our Baby”

Before the actual beginning of the game, it is probably best to discuss all the different things babies do. There are fourteen baby photograph cards, so gear your discussion towards what is on the photographs. Here is a list of what the babies are doing:

Twp babies kissing
The baby is playing with bright colorful toys in his crib.
The baby is eating. The baby is sweeping.
The baby is cooking
The baby is taking a bath.
The baby is drying off
The baby is being rubbed with body lotion
The baby is resting on a dog
The baby is going for a walk
The baby is singing. 2 pictures.......read the whole post

To see some of the baby pictures, click here
or click here

For more dementia information, click here

Top Valentine Gifts For Those With Dementia

Activities directors, other healthcare professionals and especially caregivers, here are some gift ideas for those who have Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, for Valentine's Day
Heathnewa-stat.com

Valentine’s Day is the perfect chance to give gifts that are not only enjoyable but also beneficial to a person with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. These valentine presents keep on giving

Over 5.1 million Americans are living with dementia. Is one of them someone you know or work with? Get him/her or anyone with Alzheimer's disease a Valentine's Day gift that will keep on giving long after the holiday is gone.

First on the list of gifts is a book by Susan Berg called Adorable Photographs of Our Baby -- Meaningful, Mind-Stimulating Activities and More for the Memory Challenged, Their Loved Ones and Involved Professionals, This book features baby photographs that seniors with dementia love. This book shares a plethora of ideas and resources for you.

Another gift dementia persons will fancy is a.....read the whole article

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