Saying It Step by Step

What a week! The best news for me was my third grandson was born. Nothing can top that joy. All the wonderful things that are said about being a grandmother I find are totally true. Moments I am blessed to be with any of my grandsons are treasures beyond description.

So that I don't make this week's blog about the joys of being a grandparent, I must say that my partner, Ginny, and I had a very exciting couple of days with our Brainy Day Program. The best part was having the opportunity to use the program directly with individuals. To watch their smiles and fun as they engaged in the activities was a gift to us. To know that the program is bringing the delight that we hoped it would, makes our hearts sing!

New Life!! That has been on my mind and in my spirit literally, emotionally and figuratively. While I revel in the wonder of the precious magnificence of a new member of our family, I also rejoice in the value of how precious all life is. And I am thankful to share a product and service that supports the lives of people with dementia and their care providers.

Activities bring new life to the moment. They bring energy and attention. They bring purpose and choices. Activities create moments of pleasure. They can give back.

They also bring the need for interaction and communication.

Last week, when discussing bathing, I mentioned addressing the issue that sometimes an individual with dementia may have an inability to understand what is happening or what is expected of them. This is such an important issue to consider when doing activities, when helping with daily living or when dealing with challenging behaviors. Knowing how to interact and communicate when this challenge presents itself can be helpful.

Depending on which part of the brain is affected, understanding the steps it takes to complete a task may be very confusing for the person living with dementia. Therefore it is important to do an activity with them and interact rather than just sit it before them with the expectation they will engage in it independently. It is also very important to realize that saying something like "wash your hands" can be daunting for the person with dementia. Specific, simple directions are neeeded.

Think of what thoughts go into washing your hands. First, you need to realize that you need a sink. Then you need to know how to get to it. Once there, you might turn on the faucet, put your hands under to get them wet, find the soap, rub the soap onto the hands, rub hands together, put hands back under water for rinse, find a towel, dry hands, - that's ten steps. If the brain damage is in the part of the brain where executive functioning happens, "wash your hands" is an expectation that may not make any sense. It is helpful to break it down, one step at a time with non-verbal cues when possible. For "wash your hands" it might be handing them a washcloth or touching the soap before asking them to pick it up.

In helping one woman who no longer knew how to make a favorite recipe, I put each step on individual index cards and clipped them together. She was able to continue to make the recipe by turning over the cards and following each step. It was a way to give new life to something important to her so that she could continue to do it.

Giving birth requires labor and effort. Sometimes breathing new life into an activity to help a person with dementia will require thinking "step by step" which means some planning and maybe some effort. However, the benefits can be so very rewarding. Mary Ann