Remember With Me Activity Kit - special time spent with those sufferinf from Alzheimer's Disease or dementia

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Story Behind RWM

I created Remember With Me out of my experience watching both my great aunt, Julia, and grandmother, Esther, deteriorate due to dementia. My great aunt was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and my grandmother suffered a similar but different form of dementia. What I observed was that family and friends were having difficulty finding ways to communicate and spend time with Julia and Esther as their ability to remember and communicate worsened. My father, Marvin, had a creative approach in that he sought to share time with my grandmother by playing simple puzzles and tactile oriented games that could maintain her interest and stimulate her mind. They spent many hours together enjoying each other's company with these activities, and it was my father's unique sensitivity and patience that helped preserve my grandmother's dignity without her feeling embarrassed of declined mental and physical skills. My aunt, Georgette, pursued similar creative activities with my great aunt (her Mother) by painting, singing, dancing and reading poetry together.

My father and grandmother continued to share time "playing" together until she passed away. The quality of time they were able to share made a deep impression on me. I also observed at that time that the only activities at her level Marvin could find had children's pictures on the covers and were geared toward children whose skills were typically developing and improving at a comparatively rapid pace.

I decided to create an adult activity that both the Alzheimer's sufferer and loved ones could "play" together that would still respect their age and skills at their functional level, yet would be fun and challenging in a sensitive, fun and non-threatening way.

Remember With Me (RWM) was the result of my efforts which took 10 months to complete. This kit was used and evaluated in its early stages at Morningside House Nursing Home in New York City where they were able to test my ideas in their Alzheimer's day unit, and help me refine the images, sounds and questions that worked best.

In understanding that it is often the case that a person with Alzheimer's Disease for example tends to lose their short term memory first, but retain their long terms memories for quite a long time, I created RWM withthis understanding by using color photographs of everday activities, related sounds on a tape and specific memory stimulating questions that help stir fun memories starting from childhood to the relative present.

I recall one of the sessions when one of the recreational therapists showed the picture of an airplane in flight, and played the associated sound. One of the patients who had not communicated for quite a while opened up her purse and pulled out pictures of a trip she went on a long time ago.

RWM can be shared with a elder person at any level of dementia as long as they can still respond to sound, visual cues and/or questions.

My wish is that Remember With Me provide a fun, sensitive, caring way to spend quality time with loved ones suffering from dementia.