Alzheimers Activities

Keeping Alzheimer's patients active is paramount to their health and well being. Activities keep the patient more alert and stimulated. Staying active also reduces the patient's restlessness and tendency to wander. It relieves boredom and enhances the quality of life, too. Any activity that piques the patient's interests and keeps her mind stimulated is ideal.

Guidelines for Activities

• Choosing the right activity for your patient can be easy as long as you keep these guidelines in mind. Pick activities that draw on the patient's remaining abilities and knowledge. The ideal activity provides cognitive and sensory stimulation and keeps the patient entertained. The activity should also involve very few steps for the patient to remember.

  Keep in mind that an activity the patient enjoys thoroughly today, she may have no interest in later or the next day. Keep a bank of activity ideas handy at all times. However, don't feel as if you have to keep the patient constantly busy. Only give activities if the patient is enjoying them and if it keeps them calm. Always be smart about your activity suggestions; do not give coloring books to a person in the early or middle stages of dementia, it is demeaning. However, a coloring book may be perfect for someone in the advanced stages.

Activity Ideas

• Try listening to music with the patient. Give them a small instrument, like a tambourine, and ask them to play along. Almost everyone enjoys music, even those in the latest stages of Alzheimer's. Try playing songs from the patient's past when choosing music.
  Arts and crafts, such as painting, beading or sculpting with clay, can be stimulating as well. Small things like making collages from magazine pictures or arranging flowers in a vase are perfect.
  Ask for a loaner pet or give the patient a plant. Taking care of a pet or plant provides routine and a feeling of responsibility to the patient. Cats are more encouraged as pets than dogs as they are more independent and quiet.
  Word search and jigsaw puzzles keep the patient's mental and problem-solving abilities stimulated. Any activity that activates critical or strategic thinking is key.
  In-home caregivers have the perfect activity right in front of them: household chores. Ask the patient to help you with the chores. Give them easier and more methodical jobs, such as drying the dishes, folding clothes, organizing, clipping coupons and preparing vegetables for lunch or dinner.
  Last but not least, always take walks with the patient. Getting out of the house or room and seeing new things every day does wonders for a person lost in their own mind.