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TRAILER | The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes | Watch on All 4

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Age-and dementia friendly liquor store-Dorr's Liquors in Brighton!

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50-things PLWD can do with children, friends, and family

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50-things PLWD can do with children, friends, and family

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Books about Dementia for children, listed by age group

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Books about Dementia for children, listed by age group

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Books Written By People Living With Dementia BOOK TITLE AUTHOR YEAR Dementia from the Inside: A Doctor's Personal Journey of Hope Jennifer Bute, MD 2018 Somebody I Used to Know Wendy Mitchell 2018 Coming Out of the Shadows: Why I am

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Dementia Enabling Environments | Alzheimer's WA

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Public Buildings - Dementia Enabling Environments | Alzheimer's WA

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Design your public buildings with dementia care principles in mind. Every aspect and component of your building can help people living with dementia.

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Signage, orientation of furniture, color contrasting, avoidance of all black items and busy rug patterns, better lighting, reducing unnecessary noise 

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Signage, orientation of furniture, color contrasting, avoidance of all black items and busy rug patterns, better lighting, reducing unnecessary noise 

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Parks department takes our dementia friendly design into consideration for new and updates on projects

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Parks department takes our dementia friendly design into consideration for new and updates on projects

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Split into higher and lower cost items (replace door mats vs purchase benches)

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Volunteers (as you know) are crucial and not just in the typical places: older adults, high schoolers, graduate students needing year-long site placements, undergraduates needing community service hours, girl and boy scout troops, Retired Teachers Unions 

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Volunteers (as you know) are crucial and not just in the typical places: older adults, high schoolers, graduate students needing year-long site placements, undergraduates needing community service hours, girl and boy scout troops, Retired Teachers Unions 

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Make meetings themselves dementia friendly to welcome those with cognitive impairments 

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Make meetings themselves dementia friendly to welcome those with cognitive impairments 

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Always remember “nothing for us without us” 

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Always remember “nothing for us without us” 

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Our free Memory Café Toolkit and Virtual/Hybrid Supplement provide step-by-step instructions to help you launch and sustain a memory café as well as templates you can download and adapt to fit your own program. To access the Toolkit in Spanish, click here.

The Toolkit was developed as a public service by JF&CS Alzheimer's/Related Disorders Family Support with generous support from the Massachusetts Association of Councils on Aging (MCOA).

Memory cafés offer social connection, support, invigorating activity, and information. Cafés are for individuals living with Alzheimer's or a related disorder and they are also for family members, friends, and professional caregivers of these individuals. Cafés are a cost-effective model that can be developed and run by many types of organizations, including social service or health care providers, faith communities, colleges, museums, restaurants, and more. Memory cafés are part of the growing movement to make our communities "dementia friendly."

JF&CS Alzheimer's/Related Disorders Family Support coordinates the Percolator Memory Café Network, which meets regularly to offer memory café coordinators a forum to share ideas and work together toward common goals. We are delighted to see memory cafés spreading across Massachusetts and other parts of the US and we hope that the Memory Café Toolkit will make it easier for more cafés to start. We also hope that it will promote high-quality, creative new cafés, that embody the spirit and the needs of their local community.
For access to the Toolkit, please complete the following form:
Note: after you click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the form, a page will come up with a button that says "Download Now." Click on this button to download the Toolkit.

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Our free Memory Café Toolkit and Virtual/Hybrid Supplement provide step-by-step instructions to help you launch and sustain a memory café as well as templates you can download and adapt to fit your own program. To access the Toolkit in Spanish, click here.

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Working with your library Useful guidance about dementia and reading. This company also sells books formatted for people with dementia.

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Working with your library Useful guidance about dementia and reading. This company also sells books formatted for people with dementia.

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Reading is a skill that is generally preserved and intact in the procedural memory of an elderly person. Like brushing teeth or using a spoon, the ability to read is automatic and often remains to some degree functional even in the later stages of dementia.

Why do adults with memory challenges stop reading?

Despite having the retained ability to read, most people living with dementia and other neurogenic conditions stop reading in the early stages of their disease. Generally their reluctance to read is not because they can't read, but because they can't read conventional published material. Their deficits in areas related to reading (such as ocular motor control, light perception, simultaneous processing, working memory and attention) make reading mainstream newspapers, magazines and books extremely difficult. With its low visual contrast, condensed text, extraneous visual stimuli and lengthy syntax, everyday reading material can become inaccessible.

Besides cognitive impairments, environmental factors (e.g., low lighting, poor book placement and background noise), physical symptoms (e.g., pain, discomfort, fatigue, hunger, thirst, weak postural support) and psychological experiences (e.g., anxiety, confusion) also negatively impact many older adults' abilities to concentrate on reading.

Learn more about dementia and reading in an article we published in iAdvanceSeniorCare.

What do some adults need in order for them to read?

Modifications to the reading material in regards to text, graphic layout, illustrations, language and content can compensate well for a reader's visual and cognitive deficits. Making these adaptations without compromising the intelligence and integrity of a piece of writing and without creating a juvenile quality to the work is critical.

Support partners' sensitivity to and understanding of the older adult's immediate environment, physical comfort and emotional state are also necessary for reading success, especially if the reader cannot clearly express his/her needs.

Consistent with Maria Montessori's philosophy of education, our training educates support partners on the power of modifying materials and the environment in order to lessen the need for staff direction and to allow older adults to independently engage in and lead reading activities with their peers.

How do we know they are reading?

Determining reading accuracy and comprehension level of some memory-challenged adults may not be a needed area of focus. Nurturing engagement with the text and enjoyment of a book is often more important than assessing conventional reading.

As is true for any reader, adults with degenerative conditions can interact with a book in many ways, for example by focusing on the pictures, decoding without comprehension, rereading one section, reading out of sequence, or randomly exploring the pages with intermittent reading. Signs of engagement with the text include visual focus, visual tracking, mouthing of the words, reading aloud, turning pages, commenting, smiling, laughing. We all can derive enjoyment and mental stimulation from books in a variety of ways.

How do adults living with cognitive changes benefit from reading?

Research shows that the cognitive stimulation of processing written material can slow down the progression of dementia and the decline of language skills. Reading connects older adults with their memories, their sense of self, their loved ones and the world at large.

Professionals and families report that well-chosen reading material lessens the reader's feelings of boredom, depression, restlessness and anxiety. Books can be calming and shift one's focus to positive thoughts. As an autonomous activity, reading enhances one's self-image, renewing a sense of self-respect and dignity.

Dr. Peter Dixon states, "Books bring vitality into minds that are still alive albeit declining. Nurturing the world of ideas, memory and imagination is increasingly important as bodies become fragile."

Although research on the benefits of reading for people with dementia is scant, studies' results have been positive.

If an adult is engaging with a book in some way, then that book is stimulating some degree of cognitive-language processing. The adult is most likely experiencing to some extent rekindled memories, autonomy, conversation and amusement. The primary goals of making written material accessible to adults with limited memory is to provide a pleasurable activity and to stimulate thought processes.

Books also provide a platform for discussion and sharing. With conversation sparked by books, support partners see more clearly the person behind the disease. They naturally become more invested and more personal in their care for that person.

Adult children visiting their parents see adapted books as making their visits more interactive and pleasurable and, ultimately, bringing them closer to their parents

Finally, when sharing and discussing literature, older adults express their unique views, landscapes and voices that one would not hear from other age groups. We can all benefit from the quiet, contemplative thoughts of those with the most life experience.

The voices of our eldest citizens are worthy of our attention.

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FAQ | Reading & Dementia | Reading2Connect

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Reading is a skill that is generally preserved and intact in the procedural memory of an elderly person. Like brushing teeth or using a spoon, the ability to read is automatic and often remains to some degree functional even in the later stages of dementia. Why do adults with memory challenges stop reading?

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Are there multigenerational families in your community? If so, the grandchildren and adult children are vital parts of that ecosystem. Schools, gyms, workplaces are great sectors to involve even though they might be seen as “outside the box” 

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Are there multigenerational families in your community? If so, the grandchildren and adult children are vital parts of that ecosystem. Schools, gyms, workplaces are great sectors to involve even though they might be seen as “outside the box” 

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Lead presentations, dementia friends sessions, workshops, seminars, etc. to anyone and everyone! There is no one that would not benefit from more education on the topic 

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Lead presentations, dementia friends sessions, workshops, seminars, etc. to anyone and everyone! There is no one that would not benefit from more education on the topic 

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Incentivize businesses to become age- and dementia friendly as a marketing tool to increase business (this is sometimes more effective as it gets to their bottom line!) 

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Incentivize businesses to become age- and dementia friendly as a marketing tool to increase business (this is sometimes more effective as it gets to their bottom line!) 

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Incorporate this information into other programs. For example: at the beginning of a Zumba class, mention the benefits of movement and exercise to improve brain health and mobility. Destigmatizing by talking about it more frequently in everyday life is key. 

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Incorporate this information into other programs. For example: at the beginning of a Zumba class, mention the benefits of movement and exercise to improve brain health and mobility. Destigmatizing by talking about it more frequently in everyday life is key. 

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Step by Step Guide to becoming an Age and Dementia Friendly Community

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Step by Step Guide to becoming an Age and Dementia Friendly Community

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Invitations to be a dementia friend can be more culturally responsive than just a dementia presentation which some people may feel is “outing” themselves or a family member if they attend

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Invitations to be a dementia friend can be more culturally responsive than just a dementia presentation which some people may feel is “outing” themselves or a family member if they attend

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Our new LGBTQ+ Caregiver Support Group begins on July 2nd! Join us (virtually) to share experiences, challenges and solutions. Space is limited. To register or with questions, contact us at (781) 221-7055 or A.Fieleke@MinutemanSenior.org. Thank you...

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Our new LGBTQ+ Caregiver Support Group begins on July 2nd! Join us (virtually) to share experiences, challenges and solutions. Space is limited. To register or with questions, contact us at (781) 221-7055 or A.Fieleke@MinutemanSenior.org. Thank you...