Staying Active Together

Learning your mother has Alzheimer’s is never natural.  I was devastated, yet I felt relieved that we had a diagnosis, and we could start moving forward with the right help.  However, it’s not all about medical care and drugs, and I quickly learned that there were ways I could help, and I decided to do as much research as possible to do everything I could to make my mum happy and help her. I found the Internet to be a place full of fantastic ideas, inspiration, and it connected me to others going through the same thing.

Amazing Steps Forward with Simple Ideas

One of the things which helped both my Mum and the rest of the family were small activities. There are some fantastic ideas which are only short but can make a world full of difference.  The events will take your mind off what’s happening, and will focus the mind.  We spend time together, often taking it in turns with the others in my family and have an enjoyable time.  The activities are also designed to help my mum’s mind, memory, and skills and, of course, help to keep her lively, active, and responsive in a positive way.

One of the ways we helped my mother was to use memory games. We started with memory cards, which were surprisingly similar to some of the cards I had used with my toddler.  There were some fantastic cards, though, which helped to jog the memory and reinforce what was going on with her, such as the 1940’s cards.  They were interesting for all of us, not just mum, easy to use, and very effective.  The idea was to spark conversations and memories based on the pictures on the cards. My mum responded well to lots of them, especially a haircut we saw, which had us talking for about forty minutes.

Communication Builders Can Make all the Difference

There are other things to do too, such as playing puzzles, but the other one I want to suggest is the use of memory cards.  When there are times when my mother seems reluctant to talk to me, I pull out a memory book, and we flick through the pages. The book helps to break the isolation and helps her to open up to me. They are straightforward yet bright, exciting, and have the text written in large print. Alzheimer’s and dementia are not easy, but small ideas help to break the depression and shine some much-needed light on the dark times.