Help The Person You Care for Thrive
Many care givers, family and professional, say they wish they knew of ways to better spend their time with people who have memory loss. We would all like to have those we love thrive, not just survive. In an earlier post, I wrote about the magic of music. Poems, like music, seem to be a source of great enjoyment for people of all ages. Sometimes you can simply start the line of an old familiar poem, “I think that I shall never see…” and the listener will say the next line, “A poem as lovely as a tree.” (Trees, by Joyce Kilmer.) Poetry, like music, may be stored in the long-term memory of a person with dementia and can be easily recalled.
In the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, poems can help people express their own emotions. They can help initiate conversations and reminiscing. Later in the disease process, just the sound and rhythms can be soothing and can help a person connect with the long term memories that often remain in tact.
There is something about the rhythms of both poetry and music that help organize the brain; both can somehow move people into accomplishing activities of daily living (singing a song or reciting a rhythmic verse sometimes helps with reluctant bathers.) Poetry can lift one’s spirits and feed a sense of humor. Even though people with dementias experience significant losses, many times, a sense of humor is something the person retains. Make use of it and provide opportunities for laughing.
Here’s a poem that might be fun after dinner on Thanksgiving Day:
I ate too much Turkey, I ate too much corn,
I ate too much pudding and pie.
I’m stuffed up with muffins and too much stuffin’
I’m progably going to die.
I piled up my plate and I ate and I ate,
But I wish I had known when to stop.
I’m so crammed with yams, sauces, gravies, and jams
That my buttons are starting to pop!
I’m full of tomatoes and mashed up potatoes
My stomach is swollen and sore,
But there’s still some dessert, so I guess it won’t hurt if
I eat just a little bit more!
–Author Unknown
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