Dementia – Page 15 – Designing for Aged Care

An inspirational project by a local Singaporean Melissa Chan to support people with dementia and their caregivers in the community.

Melissa’s story

Ageing & Culture, Caregiving, International Policies, Research & Best Practice, The Built Environment, Therapeutic Activities

Food Nostalgia Workshops, a deliciously fresh idea to support Dementia

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Joanna Sun

One of my fondest memories working in aged care in Australia was the talking about Christmas recipes with all the residents during this holiday season. For many of us who have slaved over the stovetop during the festive seasons, you know what I am talking about. To get that perfect Christmas fruitcake was a project months in the making. I usually worked the Christmas shifts and we would always get together and you could see all the ladies eyes lit up like the fairy lights on the Christmas tree as we chatted away about our favourite Christmas dishes, the delectable treats and without a doubt, everyone, literally all the ladies had some cooking tips and advice to share. Sometimes, even their families would join in the conversation and I had to pry myself out of the room haha. From Pavlovas, Dundee cakes, Christmas cakes, brandy butter to Medisterkaker. Everyone had something lovely to share. You can tell I love the Christmas season.

Anyway I found out that in the UK, Magna Vitae is working on a new health initiative to support people with dementia and their caregivers. Guess what? It’s all about food! In January 2016, they will be running a string of dementia friendly workshops known as ‘Feeding Memories’ for people with dementia and their caregivers in the UK.

This workshop certainly breathes innovation, food is such an important component in our daily lives. The workshop is a food reminiscence therapy programme, helping to ‘revive the senses’ through utilising food packaging from the past and it seems like there might be some cooking involved as well. It doesn’t stop there, the workshop has an inclusive and community aspect, sharing the importance of nutrition, diet and getting people socially engaged in their common love for food.

I’m really excited about the workshop and I hope that there will be more of these workshops to go around, especially in the Memory Cafes.

Anyway here’s wishing everyone Happy Holidays.

xoxo

Source: http://www.magnavitae.org/mvitae/about

Ageing & Culture, Caregiving, International Policies, Research & Best Practice, The Built Environment

Memory Cafes: Working towards inclusion

Posted on December 16, 2015December 16, 2015 by Joanna Sun

No one person with dementia and their caregivers should be isolated, and a social program in the United Kingdom, America, some parts of Australia are doing just that. We all know that loneliness affects both the person with dementia and their caregivers. Studies have reported that isolation and loneliness can bring about lowered self-esteem, feeling of abandonment, and increase mortality rates, and these are but just some of the issues associated (Brotons & Marti 2003; Reijo et al. 2011; Goll et al. 2015). Even the UK Department of Health (2012) has recognised that loneliness is a major public issue and needs to be urgently addressed.

Just along the lines of government and major organisations, when one thinks Memory Cafe, we may have a schema of a 24-hour cafe with people running around to man the joint. Administrators and funders, I can imagine pinching themselves, great idea but what’s the cost? The gears will be moving in their heads thinking about all the capital involved and the manpower cost associated with it, not counting the overheads and getting the right people to be able to make coffee and run a cafe, followed by other operational issues of burnout, turnover manpower training and development.

This memory cafe is way ahead of the game. With a number of memory cafes popping up like peonies in full sun, this program only operates a few times a month depending on the cafe. It can be once a month or twice a month and time for an hour or more. It’s free for people living with cognitive impairment/dementia and their significant other, be it their spouse, partner, child or carer.

Just having a peek at the Facebook page of one of the memory cafes in America (Brown County: Click here to visit page), you can see images people sitting in small groups of eight working together and having fun with craft activities and in one post they even mentioned that they were putting together harvest recipes for a cookbook. Another photo has a heartwarming image of people sitting around, really relaxed and laid back enjoying Christmas carols performed by the NWTC choir.

It’s hard to find programs where both the person with dementia and their significant other can actually enjoy social activities. Most activity centres would boot the caregivers, expecting people to drop off the their loved one with dementia at the centre and leave. If you hang around, you might feel a bit out of place or in the way. Or a caregiver program where caregivers come together and the person with dementia gets allocated to an activities area.

It’s just great to see a program that is so warm and inclusive, where people can just come together and there’s no stigmatism, no funny looks, no barriers. You can share stories, ask questions and there’s no stigma, no judgemental looks, no nonsense. Everyone can just be themselves, enjoy a cuppa and have some fun. A program that provides an environment that supports movement and engagement, optimises helpful stimulation, creates a familiar social space for people to have the opportunity to be part of the community, allows people to be seen and to be part of something meaningful (Fleming et al. 2003).

Isn’t this what life is about, just being able to kick back, have a cuppa and a laugh with friends.

Anyway hoping to see them catch on in Asia as well in the coffee shops and dim sum cafes.

For more information about starting a memory cafe in your community, please refer to the links below.

UK: Memory Cafe

USA: Brown County Memory Cafe

Aus: Memory Lane Cafe

Reference:

Brotons M. and Marti P., 2003. Music therapy with Alzheimer’s patients and their family caregivers: a pilot project. Journal of Music Therapy, 40(2), pp.138-150.

Department of Health (2012) Caring for our future: reforming care and support. London: The Stationary Office. Retrieved fromhttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/caring-for-our-future-reforming-care-and-support.

Fleming R, Bowles J. Units for the confused and disturbed elderly: Development, Design, Programmimg and Evaluation. Australian Journal on Ageing. 1987 November;6(4):25-8.

Fleming R, Forbes I, Bennett K. Adapting the ward for people with dementia. Sydney: NSW Department of Health; 2003.

Goll JC, Charlesworth G, Scior K, Stott J (2015) Barriers to Social Participation among Lonely Older Adults: The Influence of Social Fears and Identity. PLoS ONE 10(2): e0116664.

Reijo S. Tilvis, Venla Laitala, Pirkko E. Routasalo, and Kaisu H. Pitkälä, “Suffering from Loneliness Indicates Significant Mortality Risk of Older People,” Journal of Aging Research, vol. 2011, Article ID 534781, 5 pages,

International Campaigns, International Policies, Research & Best Practice, Therapeutic Activities

Plant compound found in spices and herbs in your kitchen can increase brain connections

Posted on December 15, 2015December 16, 2015 by Joanna Sun

Researchers from The D’Or Institute for Research and Education discovered that a compound found in your everyday parsley, thyme, chamomile and red pepper can increase brain connections.

Read more about the article by clicking the link below.

Brazilian researchers from D’Or Institute for Research and Education, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Federal University of Bahia have demonstrated in laboratory that apigenin, a substance found in parsley, thyme, chamomile and red pepper, improves neuron formation and strengthens the connections between brain cells.

Source: Plant compound found in spices and herbs increases brain connections | EurekAlert! Science News

Ageing & Culture, Caregiving, International Policies, Research & Best Practice, The Built Environment

Individuality & Person Centred Care in Asia

Posted on December 14, 2015February 24, 2016 by Joanna Sun

Since a fortnight ago this tweet have been shared over 29,000 times and 21,720. Tweeted by Harudajin, he shares an unforgettable experience in his youth in primary school when his teacher shared with his students the meaning of individuality.

The teacher explained that when an instruction is provided to have the class write the word 晴, then everyone in the class will write the word 晴. However, the result of the word 晴 will differ slightly from each student. However if given an instruction to write the word 晴 and the student wrote the word 雨, that is not viewed as individuality.

Below is the original tweet:

https://twitter.com/harudajin/status/670747731510452224

There is a lot of discussion about a social culture in Asia and the differences between the cultures between the East and the West. Individuality in this discussion is working together as a social being, but at the same time appreciating and accepting the differences that we exhibit as individuals. No two handwriting can be exactly the same and despite our very similar daily routine and habits, it’s the small intricacies and preferences that make us all different. Here the teacher explains that we don’t have to radically stand out to be different, we can all be different and still maintain a sense of cohesion and harmony without our culture.

No two handwriting can be exactly the same. Despite our very similar daily routine and habits, it’s the small intricacies and preferences that make us all different. Here the teacher explains that we don’t have to radically stand out to be different, we can all be different and still maintain a sense of cohesion and harmony without our culture, and that’s what individuality is all about.

For Asians, harmony and cohesion are important factors and at times residents, and patients may not voice out our needs as they may not wish to inconvenience their carers and caregivers.

At a talk a few months ago about the Fukushima earthquakes, it was said that older adults that sought shelter in a gymnasium developed incontinence issues and muscle atrophy. Afraid that they were being disruptive and inconsiderate to fellow residents living in the open space temporary shelter, many remained sitting in their allocated space, not going to toilets allocated outside of the gymnasium.

Image source: Japan Earthquake: Rescue, Recovery, and Reaction – The Atlantic

This scenario is not unfamiliar to nurses working in acute care, step down facilities, nursing home and other community care facilities where families complain about their love ones developing incontinence and decreased mobility. It’s a common case study where you have a person coming out of the hospital with incontinence and decreased mobility and nurses and loved ones are concerned about falls resulting in the person spending the rest of their life sitting in wheelchairs. Being put on pads due to their incontinence issues, the person may not wish to venture out in the public, and participate in activities reducing their social engagements and decreasing movement. So starts a vicious downward spiral where mobility is lost and depression sets in.

All it takes is for us to care; to ask and encourage. To encourage our residents and patients and engage with them socially and to support movement. To ask about their preferences and how we can encourage our residents and patients to retain their independence and to maintain their mobility. This is a community effort, from governments to management to directors of nursing to the nurses and the care staff, we need to make time to care. Our residents and patients make an effort to not inconvenience us isn’t care a priority in healthcare in the first place?Person-centred care in Asia isn’t about being indulgent

Person-centred care in Asia is not about indulging a persons’ need for choices or the ability to be drastically different from everyone. It is about celebrating and supporting individuality and autonomy whilst maintaining harmony and social cohesion in the community. A fine balance, not in the pursuit of happiness but in a pursuit of peace. To be satisfied with the balance in life that brings us peace within.

it’s not 兴高采烈 but a 幸福美满的生活 that we yearn for.

Reference: Handwriting

Ageing & Culture, Caregiving, International Campaigns, International Policies, Research & Best Practice, The Built Environment

Dementia Language Project

Posted on December 13, 2015December 13, 2015 by Joanna Sun

Read an awesome ad inspiring news piece about Lingo Flamingo, a social enterprise in Glasgow that provides individualised lessons and workshops that aid cognitive function with the aim of tackling dementia. The founder Robbie Norval founded Lingo Flamingo to help his grandmother who was living with dementia.

There’s been a sea of research recently reminding us that being bilingual or multilingual has it’s benefits, everyone from the Singapore Management University, Georgetown University Medical Centre, Northwestern University, the University of Houston and even the American Heart Association.

The research states that being bilingual or multilingual can

improve our ability to process information
gain more grey matter than monolinguals
better cognitive functions post-stroke than monolinguals
be a constant challenge to the brain

A dementia language project such as Lingo Flamingo is an inspiration. It not only aid cognitive function, it helps to support engagement and movement, it gets people into the community and builds an inclusive environment. Most of it, it’s people coming together to learn and to have fun learning.

Hopefully, more of these initiatives will be set up globally, certainly would love to see a programme such as this in Asia as well. Though a large number of Asian are bilingual, it’s always not a bad thing for your brain health to pick up another language.

Reference:

Govan dementia language project launched – BBC News

Bilingualism and the Brain

Bilinguals of Two Spoken Languages Have More Gray Matter Than Monolinguals

Speaking multiple languages linked to better cognitive functions after stroke