Page 89 - Senior Link Magazine Summer 2026 - Online Magazine

SENIOR RESOURCES

I'm Still Here!

An Amazing Program for

Dementia Patients by Barbara Jensen

etting old is definitely not
for sissies! As we age, it
Gbecomes more difficult to
do many of the things we did in
our youth. We aren’t as strong,
may take longer to react to
situations, may not be as agile as
we once were, our balance may
be a challenge, and our vision
and hearing may falter.

About ten percent of us
may also develop dementia.
Dementia is an umbrella name
for a variety of illnesses affecting
our ability to remember. Some
of these are treatable, but the
majority of types of dementia,
including Alzheimer’s, are not Often people with dementia the patient what his interests
curable. are placed in nursing homes and hobbies are and what he
where they sit—ignored, alone, enjoys in life so that, as his illness
For most of us, our mind is like and misunderstood for years as progresses, the family and staff
a file cabinet, and we wake up their illness increases to enfold can work to help him continue
in the morning pulling today’s their entire system. Their mental to enjoy those activities. A daily
folder up and adding today’s deterioration is seen as inevitable. calendar of events may include
events into it. A person with They may ignore the current group singing, crafts, puzzles,
dementia is not losing his mind— moment and feel they’re in a reading time, or pet therapy in
he’s got his file cabinet— but moment from their past. Family addition to physical therapy
when he wakes up, he may be may not understand and try to and other medically necessary
pulling a folder from 40 years tell their loved one he is wrong activities. Because some types
ago and living as though that is about what he is thinking or
today. He’s losing his “memory how he is acting.
bank,” the part of his brain that
recalls what he’s been doing It doesn’t have to be that way!
lately. He may not recognize The “I’m Still Here” program
his wife coming to visit him was developed in 1992 by
today but recognizes her in that Hearthstone Institute with
40-year-old picture. He still walks a system of activities and
and talks and has interests, but, approaches to benefit people
with time, loses much of the living with dementia. The
ability to recall or focus on them. program starts by learning from

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