Those with dementia may remember when they paint

Caregivers, and healthcare professionals, here is some great information


Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,


Your residents will love the Amazon Kindle Fire


Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be


Here is a way for nurses administrators, social workers and other health care  professionals to get an easyceu or two


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The Dementia Caregiver's Little Book of Hope [Kindle Edition

Caring.com

Stories of how people with Alzheimer's spark to creative activities involving art, music, and literature are fascinating to hear – and even more so to witness. Better yet, arts activities make life less stressful for dementia caregivers, which is why I can't revisit this topic enough.

• When my son played guitar for a group of residents in the dementia wing of a nursing home where his grandpa lived for rehab, one woman prone to violence and wandering restlessly planted herself in front of him to happily dance and dance.
• A friend recently told me her mother, who has advanced Alzheimer's, mostly sits locked into her own silent world, until her daughter plays church hymns on the piano. Then Mom sings every word, clear as a bell.
• Alzheimer's disease turned actress Rita Hayworth anxious, aggressive, and confused – except when she was painting flowers, a hobby she took up late, and with gusto.
• A former teacher, new to a long-term dementia care facility, is restless and agitated until he's made the leader of a book group. Passing out books and reading aloud with other residents from large-type books becomes a daily focus and motivation.

Obviously nobody paints or plays music 24/7. And it would be hard for a dementia caregiver to organize artsy activities all day long. But don't be too quick to think it's not for you. You don't have to be a sophisticated arts therapist or spend a lot of energy to reap the benefits:

1. Arts participation gives someone with dementia a sense of accomplishment and pleasure; the resulting positive emotions reverberate throughout your day.
2. Finding the right "spark" gives you a go-to activity to help change mood in a pinch, when your loved one is upset or bored.
3. Going out to, say, a concert or a museum in early- to mid-stage disease gets you both out of the house.

"Alzheimer's doesn't take away memory; your memories are all in there. The part of the brain that's damaged is the part that gives you access to memory. It's as if you put the memories in the glove compartment and you lost the key – and the art unlocked it," says John Zeisel, a sociologist who founded Artz for Alzheimer's, a very cool organization that sets up guided museum tours for people with Alzheimer's, among other programs. Zeisel is also the author of last year's I'm Still Here: A Breakthrough Approach to Understanding Someone Living With Alzheimer's.

Some ideas to get you started:

• Don't assume the arts have no effect if your loved one was never "artsy." Music and painting reach many people with dementia, even the unlikeliest.
• Experiment. Some people take to dance, others like to pluck a zither or work in fingerpaint. Rent musicals to watch. Visit a museum every Friday afternoon – it can be the same place, looking at the same art, every week; it's the routine and in-the-moment experience that helps.
• Keep it simple. My Dad, a lifelong photographer, could no longer operate even the simplest camera, but he never lost his enjoyment of polka music. Paint-by-numbers? Maybe not. Watercolor? Who knew your mom was an Impressionist?
• It's art therapy, not art class. As you look at paintings or art books, resist the urge to quiz about artists or famous works. Just talk about the colors, shapes, and emotions: "Do you like it? How about this one?"

What to do about a neurlogical disorder

Health care professionals and persons in charge of the care of a person with a brain disorder, here is some information that will be useful to you.

There are instances that you may need to consult a Neurology Specialist. There is an oustanding medical center in New York that has a state of the art neurology department. Perhaps your patient or loved has dementia.

They may have adult epilepsy which caused brain damage leading to dementia. You will want to try to avoid brain damage so it is best to consult an Epilepsy Specialist to help avoid any kind of brain damage. There is a great place in New York which people from all over the world travel to.Also Beth Israel in New York has many subspecialties in neurology if there is another issue.

If brain damage occurred because of epilepsy or another neurological disorder, you will want to keep the persons’ brain as active as possible to minimize their mental decline.


Try to pinpoint some areas of mental strength and devise activities that focus on these areas. Music is a great tool to introduce to people because it uses so many areas of the brain. People seem to remember the words and melodies to songs when they may remember nothing else.

It is best to use trial and error to see what songs they respond to. It may be songs from the past or it may be other songs.

If you do this in combination with the use of a Neurology Specialist, you will get the best results possible. Whether your patient, client or loved one has adult epilepsy, or another neurology deficit resulting in dementia, this is the best option.



What can a Neurology Specialist do for your patient, client or loved one? They are people who are considered to be experts in problems with the brain and thinking skills. They are able to diagnose problems that may otherwise go undetected because of their knowledge and skill level. So as I stated previously, consult a Neurology Specialist and devise some activities to keep the brain active.

Can music help Alzheimer's patients build memories?

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting Corrier-journal.comactivities

Here is a dementia music activity

Boston Globe

Music triggers memories, even for people with Alzheimer’s disease. A big band recording can help them remember their lives when the song was new. But a new study from Boston researchers suggests that music can also help them form new memories.

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Boston University neuroscientist Brandon Ally and his colleagues tested 13 people diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s and 14 healthy adults of similar age to see how well they could recognize lyrics to new, unfamiliar children’s songs. The participants were shown four lines of rhyming lyrics for each of 40 songs on a computer screen. For half the songs, a woman sang the lyrics; for the other half she recited them. After about 10 minutes, the participants were shown lyrics for 40 new songs and the 40 they had previously seen and asked if they recognized them.

People with Alzheimer’s correctly recognized 40 percent of the songs they heard sung compared with 28 percent of songs whose lyrics they heard spoken. The healthy adults didn’t show as much of a difference, recognizing 77 percent of spoken versus 74 percent of sung lyrics. The authors think that the Alzheimer’s patients were drawing on parts of the brain not affected by early memory loss that may respond to music.

If music can help Alzheimer’s patients learn new information, it could help with such tasks as remembering names or when to take daily medications, Ally said, which could allow people to live independently longer during the early stages of the disease.

BOTTOM LINE: People read all of Can music help Alzheimer's patients build memories?

Those with Alzheimer's connect with the past

Those with Alzheimer's in the early to mid stages have long term memory recall.

Old favorite programs like Lawrence Welk and Mitch Miller san bring many happy moments to these Alzheimer's persons.

Also magazines and books that remind Alzheimer's individuals of past experiences are a great tool for caregivers and others to use to brighten an Alzheimer's persons day

Here is an excerpt for an article from HealthCentral.com - Arlington,VA,USA
by Carol Bradley Bursack
Tuesday, July 01, 2008

The point of this? My sister was told that her colleague's mother, who was viewing the program, had said to the adult child, "Lawrence Welk looks wonderful. He just doesn't age!" To her, Lawrence Welk is alive and well and not aging, since she's seeing him on television.

click here to read the whole story