Help is at hand when memory fails

A public library system in southern Alberta offers memory kits to help those with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

MAGRATH, Alta. — Dementia can rob people of opportunities for meaningful communication. Alzheimer’s disease can do the same.

As those afflicted experience memory loss, it can be hard for other family members and caregivers to share both thoughts on the past and meaningful experiences in the present.

Brenda Hill, regional lead for the Alzheimer Society of Alberta based in Lethbridge, recalls a conversation that illustrates the point. It was with a woman whose husband had dementia.

“He wasn’t able to engage in conversation like he used to. He would quite often get distracted. He wanted to be doing something and have a purpose,” Hill said the woman recounted.

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“She said, ‘I just wish there was something that we could sit down and do together.’ “

A pilot project involving memory kits that can be borrowed through southern Alberta’s Chinook Arch library system might be able to provide that “something” the woman was seeking.

The library system has secured 10 types of memory kits that contain CDs and DVDs designed to spark memories and promote conversations. Topics include farm days, the 1960s, summertime, fashion, fun and games, pets, fall, home front, birthdays and the 1950s.

“There’s activities, there’s music … things that people will have strong memories about,” said Hill.

“It just definitely will engage people with dementia and their care partners or their grandchildren or their children to talk about and reminisce, which is one of the really main things that people can engage with someone who is having memory difficulties.

“I can visualize someone sitting down with someone with dementia and putting one of the CDs on and then having a conversation about the music.”

The kits are a product of an American company called BiFolkal. Lisa Weekes, manager of partnerships and community development with the Chinook Arch Regional Library System, saw and recognized them as a potentially useful library service.

Lisa Weekes of the Chinook Arch Library System in southern Alberta holds one of the memory kits designed to help foster communication with people who have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. | Barb Glen photo

“We were really looking for a pre-packaged option so that we could bring it into Canada and test it through our partner with the Alzheimer Society,” said Weekes.

“It is American based but the topics and the subjects that they cover are really universal because they do cross-culturally provide information.”

Weekes is now hoping caregivers and family members of people affected with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease will sign out the kits and provide feedback to the library on their usefulness.

Hill said it can be difficult to find items and activities that engage dementia sufferers. It’s even more difficult when other complications are involved, such as hearing or vision loss.

That’s why printed material and music are part of the kits with users able to pick and choose what they’d like to try within each one.

Alzheimer’s disease is particularly cruel when it comes to interaction, Hill said.

“It’s really an awful disease. It chips away at who the person is.”

The kits are accompanied by information about the Alzheimer Society and how caregivers can get support in dealing with a loved one who has either dementia or Alzheimer’s.

They are available in Chinook Arch libraries in Magrath, Cardston, Pincher Creek, Coaldale, Taber, Fort Macleod, Claresholm, Lethbridge, Vulcan and Raymond.

About Alzheimer’s and dementia

Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are not the same thing. Dementia is a syndrome, not a disease. Dementia can be a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dementia can be caused by vascular problems, mineral deficiency, stroke, depression and chronic drug use.
Both dementia and Alzheimer’s can cause memory impairment.
Alzheimer’s also involves impaired judgment, disorientation, confusion and behavioural changes.
Alzheimer’s has no cure. Dementia can be treated, depending on the cause.
An estimated 564,000 Canadians are living with dementia.
An estimated 16,000 of them are younger than 65.
25,000 new cases of dementia are diagnosed every year.
An estimated 937,000 Canadians will be living with dementia in 15 years.
An estimated 1.1 million Canadians are directly or indirectly affected by dementia.
It costs about $10.4 billion annually to care for them.