re: Help dealing with someone with Dementia

Having gone through my father's Alzheimers and now my mother's dementia, here is something I learned that may be helpful. As the memory shortens, you can repeat things. With my father, I could tell him certain jokes that I knew he would laugh it. I could wait an hour later and repeat those jokes and he would laugh just as hard as if he had never heard them before. Now I know the shows and movies that my mother enjoys. She can watch those same shows and movies over and over and still enjoy them as if she had never seen them before. With some, she vaguely remembers having seen them but she still enjoys them.

Myself, I can rarely hear a joke or watch a program more than twice because there are no longer any surprises. That is not true with people suffering significant memory problems. So if you are involved with a someone suffering from memory problems, you can give them a pick-up to their day if you know what will make them laugh or absorb their interest. And what works now will often work just as well an hour or a day or week later.