Keeping Active At Home with Jodi Kolada

In this episode of the Ask Dr. Mia podcast, Dr. Mia speaks with Jodi Colada, a director of caregiver outreach, about engaging activities for family caregivers of loved ones living with dementia. They discuss the challenges caregivers face in getting their loved ones to participate in activities, the importance of creating a supportive environment, and various creative expressions that can foster connection. Jodi shares practical tips, resources, and tools to help caregivers engage their loved ones meaningfully, emphasizing the value of participation and the joy of shared experiences.

Chapters

00:00 Engaging Activities for Dementia Caregivers
00:17 Introduction to Jody Kalata and Her Expertise
00:45 Connecting with the Audience
01:00 Engaging Activities for Dementia Caregivers
11:13 Creative Expression Through Art and Music
21:06 Practical Tools and Resources for Caregivers

Jodi Kolada is the Director of Caregiver Outreach and Non-Clinical Team Member Education with Well∙Spring Solutions. Jodi has a master’s degree in Gerontological Studies from Miami University of Ohio. She is a certified co-leader of Powerful Tools for Caregivers.  She is a certified instructor of the Dementia Dialogues Program from the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. She leads the agency’s efforts to successfully provide a combination of evidence-based programs, educational classes, retreats, and monthly support groups to family caregivers. She also presents to faith, civic and community organizations about caregiving issues.

Below are some of Jodi's helpful resources;

SITES
www.nationaldaycalendar.com – online database of holidays and celebrations – can spark great conversation and incudes activity ideas


www.backthenhistory.com – provide an email address to receive a daily message about the history of everyday objects - can spark great conversation and activity ideas


https://dementianc.org/helpsupport/music-memory-at-home/  Music & Memory is an evidence-based program which helps people living with dementia find joy and connection to life through musical favorites.  They help to develop a personalized playlist, and provide a Music & Memory at Home Kit, which includes a digital music player uploaded with the person’s favorite music, headphones, a Bluetooth speaker and written guides. Both the primary caregiver and the program listener (person with a dementia diagnosis in a home setting) must be in NC.


https://www.goldencarers.com/activities - activity ideas & helpful resources

https://mariasplace.com/ - activity ideas

 
Free APPS

Word Search Colorful

Flower Garden

Jigsaw Puzzles Real

My Reef 3D Aquarium

 GAMES

 Shut the Box  -basic math

Rory’s Story Cubes - storytelling

Transcript

0:02

Welcome back to Ask Dr. Mia podcast. Today I have Jodi Kalata with me. She is the director of caregiver outreach and non-clinical team member education with Wellspring Solutions. I first came across Jodi because she was presenting at the North Carolina Adult Day Program symposium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And when I heard her talk, I knew that I had to invite her to speak to you all on this podcast because I just felt like she was definitely an expert in terms of finding engaging activities for people living with dementia. She is also a certified co-leader for powerful tools for caregivers, as well as a certified instructor of the dementia dialogues program. from the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. So she leads Wellspring's efforts to provide a combination of evidence-based programs, educational classes, and monthly support groups to family caregivers. So welcome to the podcast, Jodi. you so much for having me. Thank you! Thank you. I want to thank you. Well, so let's get right into it. I know one of the things that I hear all the time from families I talk with in the clinic, they say, well, all of this activity sounds great, except I can't seem to get my loved one to do it. So any tips that you have to get people to participate and especially for folks who might be at home. not in an adult day environment. uh I oftentimes feel like families really want their family loved ones to do something that's more than watch TV, but there is a gap between the desire to do something and the disease's apathy and doing the activity. Yeah, I think sometimes it helps to understand not just what's going on in the brain, but that sometimes it's just safer for the person to not engage, whether it's things in the room that are distracting, it's overwhelming. Earlier in the disease process, when there is anxiety and self-confidence can be just so limiting with feeling as though you're not having the successes that you had in the past. It's just sometimes easier to not engage. So some of the tips and one thing I would really love to share is that you can have all of these best practices and strategies and it can be so frustrating. So if you are putting your best foot forward and doing your best, please just know you're doing your best because it's easy to give up. when someone's motivation and initiative is not there. And it's easy to just not want to pause and just say, you know what, forget it. But please just keep trying. Please know you're doing your best. So some of the tips that we tend to use in our programming is, you know, when you ask someone if they want to do something, normally what's the response you're going to get? No, thank you. No. So Let's just take like a puzzle, for example. Maybe we would say something like, which puzzle looks good to you? Which one do you want to do? And you've got maybe two or three puzzles out. And another strategy is asking for help. know, mom, can you help me with this puzzle? People want to feel value. People want to have purpose. And when you ask for help, it might be that they're more inclined to feel really good about. Yes, I do want to have a sense of accomplishment. I do want to help you. So we want to use the approach of kind of like, let's do this versus do you want to do this? And of course, if you get resistance, you might want to again, just just pause and and go for it again. I do have some other thoughts about just strategies, approach is so important, communication is so important. So we wanna be so mindful of providing an environment that is reassuring and supportive and our words and our body language really matter. Cause our individuals with dementia, they remember the feeling of the praise and I did a good job versus someone who might just feel as though, well, I don't wanna do this with you because you get impatient and The outcome is not, we're not looking for perfection. We're looking for an enjoyment in the process. And sometimes we're our own barrier because we can't just ease our expectations. And maybe if we're playing a game, we don't have to play by the rules. We don't have to take score. We can shorten the length of the game's process. So sometimes we just have to be mindful of how are we doing in the equation. That makes sense. Absolutely, and that's so important. And I think I sometimes see really well-meaning family caregivers, adult children in many instances who really want their parent to perform in many ways similar to kind of how they did before. And I see that as not just, it's not that they don't understand the disease process. So much of it, so much of having a loved one with dementia is dealing with our own grief of the way that they're changing, how their behavior or personality or what they're not able to do as a loss and a continual loss over time. So I think I love that you started out with. just taking our own pulse in terms of are we getting anxious? If we're trying to get someone to do something and we come across as kind of impatient, yeah, it's probably no surprise that the other person living with dementia does not wanna do it. Exactly. And it's good to think about, what time of day are they at their most best? We want to try and capitalize on their strengths. So when is the best time of day to do that? You know, are we in an environment where, again, the TV's on and it's cluttered and we're not offering simplicity. So it just becomes overwhelming. And then it's I don't even want to sit down here with you. I need to be where I'm in either solitude or I need to be where I'm not feeling. challenged. Even though we do want to offer a little bit of challenge, we don't want to get to the point of frustration so that the person doesn't want to engage with what we're doing. So do you recommend, I know the environment is so important and sometimes the home environment can be cluttered because the person living with dementia might be looking for things and making things clutter. Do you recommend kind of having a particular zone or space for activities in the home? And how do you recommend kind of keeping things simple or free from distractions? Yeah, I do think that if we're going to be having a time where we're going to maybe put in our routine an activity time, maybe there is a place or we just know that as we're building in a schedule of uh some type of activity that we want to just try and maybe not have it be as spontaneous, but plan a little bit so that we have it be just. just in a way where it's a little simple. We don't have to have a zone necessarily because some people don't have the space, but if you do, that's great. Cause that could be where the person knows when I come in this space, I'm going to do something that kind of gives me some brain fitness or maybe I'm gonna sort something or maybe we're gonna put the music on. Maybe we're gonna do something and we're gonna have enjoyment in this space. But it can be very hard. all living in our homes. essentially like the um engagement room, you know, as if we would have a program space. not like recreation therapists who, you know, go into the closet and pull out all these great, you know, resources. So I think it's okay if you don't have a space designated, it's just fine. But we just want to be sure that there's not a lot of sound going on and things that can be so distracting that we're not going to make it successful from the get-go. Yeah, turning off the TV is probably something that's really important. a lot of times I used to do home visits all the time and the TV is just on in the background and they don't even notice it. But having a trying to engage someone in a communication and conversation is so much harder because part of their attention is on the TV, even if we're not paying attention to the TV. Yeah. Well, two different ways to look at it because it can be a shared experience where we're going to be in this together. So I want to have good eye contact. I want to be doing this where we're enjoying and being in the moment. And then, of course, realistically, there's going to be times when you might just, if it's appropriate, set up something and every once in a while, check back. But it's still that uh goal that they're going to be engaged in something to promote their cognition, to promote their creative expression. to move a little bit. So it can go both ways. You don't have to feel like it always has to be a formal activity that you need to be with the person, even though that's what's kind of preferred. as you said earlier, caregivers are busy. They're overwhelmed. And it's OK to set somebody up. And I'll give some kind of resources in a bit about maybe um just offering some ideas of how to do that. And I know you had shared during your talk uh and I've been really interested in kind of artistic expression in many different ways, especially as dementia progresses, a lot of people's ability to communicate via words or their previous hobbies of reading or even sometimes watching a movie and not being able to follow the plot. Those kind of... previously enjoyable activities are no longer things that they could do, what do you think are some artistic expression for people living with dementia? Sure, mean, creative expression on art can be such a powerful way to just feel connection. And a lot of what we do in our programming centers around visual arts, centers around um projects, uh poetry, dance, uh molding, know, textures, clay, things of that nature. uh One of the things that we do, which really ends up being such a meaningful project, and this could be something that can be done over time is art journaling, where you get a uh one of those just dollar store composition books, and you are having a magazine and different art supplies, cutting out different photographs, colored pencils or whatnot. And you kind of ask the person, why they chose the item that they did. Why did they pick that out? And you can spark as much of a conversation as you can. And as you're turning the pages, it can help to kind of just um encourage that expression, encourage um creativity and... Putting together this art journal allows you to kind of explore with simple tools and different things. Maybe you're going to add some paint to it. So an art journal is one thing that I know we do in our programs. It's beautiful to look back on. It can help as you're looking through it for creating and thinking back on reminiscing. uh Any particular ideas and kind of how to introduce an art journal to someone living with dementia? Do you give them a prompt or do you just hand them a bunch of magazines and say, you know, pick out what calls to you? Pick out what calls to you exactly. So it could be that you have a blank paper. Now, if you see that someone right away picks up the marker and they want to start to doodle or they want to start, let them just do it as they will. It's really a finished product at the end, but it's again, the process. So you want to be guided by the enjoyment, not totally the outcome. So it could be that you're doing this together. You're looking maybe through if the person's past interest was birds or gardening or cooking. You might find that there are magazines that have that particular topic and you're looking through and you realize that something resonates with them maybe by the look in their eyes or something sparks their interests and you can cut it for them. You can ask them if they're able to write. You can say, well, what does this make you think of? It could be a picture of a flower. It makes them think of a cat. We're going to write the word cat and we're going to move on and say great job because it's just a matter of, again, going with what the person's feeling and praising as we go along. praise is so important. feel like we all want to be praised and especially when someone is experiencing so much of their daily loss of their functioning. How do you encourage people to kind of praise in a genuine way, but not in a condescending way? Because sometimes, you know, especially for the role reversal of adult children and their parent, you know, I don't want to come across like, I'm infantilizing an older adult with their abilities. Because they might look at me and say, why did you say good job? Yes, so right. try um when I am giving somebody praise, if I'm walking through the program area, I try to find something that I can hone in on. I really like the color that you chose. And I might say, this reminds me of something. This is really well done. Does it remind you of that? And I try to just have it be a little more conversational versus a global, nice job. So and you don't have to. um offer praise so that it feels like it's patronizing and it's too often. It could be that you're just encouraging, let's keep going. I really like where this is going. You're doing a lovely job with this. I hope you're enjoying this. I am. I love watching you do this and we're doing it together. Or if you're in a home where there is an older adult that's being cared for as well as younger children. So such a lovely thing to do together. Praising both. parties, know, for a job well done or just working together nicely. That's such a great idea, having the older adult and the younger children do an artistic activity together. I didn't even think about that, but that totally resonates because my kids love doing arts and crafts and sometimes it's fun to just do it with them even though half the time they do a better job than I do. And you do want to just encourage, right? You don't want to do it for them. You want to let them take the lead. And some of the other ways that not so much visual arts, but we incorporate music for creative expression. There are so many different ways to do that. And I think music just lifts people's spirits. And for those individuals with dementia, can be calming. can, we see people tap their foot when they're not even that. um able to verbalize sentences, but a music comes on and they're singing or humming along or tapping their feet. So music is another way that we really want to offer creative expression. I mentioned poetry just because um I was tasked with helping with an activity programming at the center. And I use the website, which I'll share, called the National um Day Calendar, which um I rely on quite a bit, I must say. And it was friendship day on the day that I was exploring the website. And I thought friendship day, I can make a program out of friendship day. can. And we made an acrostic poem out of the letters of friendship. And I just asked for words that help you describe a good friend. And that is something, too, that you can do with youth. know, it just can build. And that is That is one website that really helps with sparking conversation and can take you on a different path to poetry, to just really thinking about some interesting celebrations and getting our juices flowing in terms of having a chat about some really interesting topics. And will have the national day calendar link in the show notes as well so that those who are listening can definitely go check that out. And that can actually, if you find it beneficial, really be a part of a daily routine. It is a database organized by day and the month. So if you wanted to make that something you did every day before dinner or every day after dinner, you could just pick one of the holidays that are recognized or a celebration. Sometimes they're very obscure, like National Cheese Lover's Day, which is one my favorites. you can. uh build uh on that and make it almost a daily part of your routine. Let's go check out the daily calendar and see what day is being celebrated nationally or internationally and make it kind of something that's expected. That's really fun. It's always surprising to me how many different types of days there are. There are all kinds of days. em I bet. I bet. So besides the National Day calendar, em any other games or websites or I know there's an app for everything, but sometimes I feel like simpler, maybe better. What do you typically recommend in terms of starting points? sure. there are websites that you can use if you are ready to kind of explore some tools, some guides, some ideas. There is one website called Golden Carers, and that offers just a wealth of ideas on a variety of different topics. They might even have armchair travel, like different ways where you can visit a specific country. ah You can also, again, with the National Day calendar, um that is something that we use in our programs. But Golden Carers is something that I might recommend for families at home, as well as a website I recently discovered called Maria's Place. And Maria's Place offers ideas as well and guidelines for doing oh activities at home. So those are just some some websites, some of them out there are designed more for senior living communities. But I think that there's a wealth of ideas here for the family caregiver at home on those two sites. Great. So we'll link those in the show notes as well. So what do you recommend as sort of, what are some examples besides the, that might be on the golden carers or Maria's place in terms of thinking something that, I think one thing that oftentimes is hard for caregivers to figure out is what is the right type of activity for a loved one's disease when their cognition is changing? Yeah, I think as you are able to look at the different offerings, you might get a sense right off the bat if they might have a level of um what's challenging and what's less challenging. And I think you might be able to just gauge it by Azure. Is your loved one seemingly frustrated with this? Maybe we need to take a step back. I think it's OK to choose things from their past interests that, for example, if someone used to like to garden, there is an app called Flower Garden on, you know, with uh Android or Apple. And um you're able to basically create from start to finish Flower Garden. And in the end, you can even gift it to somebody via maybe needing help from someone. So there are apps out there, matching pairs app. There's an app about, um it's called um Jigsaw Puzzles Real. That's another app. And it's designed for seniors who might have a challenge picking up Jigsaw puzzle pieces with a real puzzle. And in this way, they're able to do it um just by a slide of a finger. So there's also um Word Search Colorful, which is another app. So if someone really struggles with uh pen and paper, this particular app lets you swipe your finger and provides a colorful highlight if you find a word. So it's really a matter of seeing, this frustrating? Is this too challenging? Similarly, it could be too easy and it might not be challenging enough. So uh it's really kind of about like a lot of things with dementia care, trying things and seeing what works. and maybe having to try again. Unfortunately, there's just no guarantee that they're gonna enjoy the activity idea that you have for them, but it's worth trying. It's worth trying. Yeah, and also just knowing that sometimes what they might enjoy one day may be something they don't enjoy another day. I think a lot about how that's relevant for my children as well, especially when it comes to foods. Like one day they just suddenly decided they don't eat that anymore. And that unpredictability can kind of drive you nuts. So that's one of the real challenges of it. There um are also, I wanted to just suggest there's games that, one in particular that I think is fairly easy to DIY, it's called Rory's Story Cubes. And this is a game that is touted on different websites that's appropriate for seniors with dementia. And it's basically the role of a dice with images. And as you have the images on the table, you're kind of building a foundation for storytelling. And this is something where you can, instead of purchasing the game, you can draw some images on a sheet of paper, pass them around, and you come up with maybe a very funny story. the laughter is so wonderful in the family to be able to just have some lightness. That is a game and there's also a game called shut the box if I'm not mistaken. And that game involves simple math, fine motor skills, control of the fingers. again, if there's grandchildren or youth in the home, these are great games to play together and just create those individual moments of joy. Excellent. So, Roy Story Cube and Shut the Box Games. And we'll also link those in the show notes. Yeah, I love the idea of kind of using a dice or a picture dice to kind of create. It's almost like, I guess, Mad Libs, except it's, you you have to you have to use the words to fill out the story, not giving you the story and and filling random words. uh Yeah, I have struggled kind of advising uh family caregivers for a lot of older men where one, maybe they didn't have a whole lot of hobbies outside of their work or that their hobbies were things like golf and fishing. Two things that maybe they're not able to do for various physical or cognitive issues. Anything that you have found success with for older men in terms of like things that they might enjoy in your center. Oh, well, sometimes picture books are very helpful. You there are sports magazines. We have a gentleman who really uh gets calmed by putting headphones on and will put a sporting event on an iPad for him. And we'll talk about it a little bit. You're right, though, it is a little more challenging. Not every uh man wants to do something traditionally like with a craft. And sometimes it's just a way to get them to feel like they're making something though, using their hands. And they feel again, like that value of, put this together. So it could be that we're asking for help. We have several gentlemen who we asked to help sweep. We asked to help clear off the table and they're feeling again, you know, they wanna be an independent oh helper. And that also kind of brings me that you don't really have to have everything be a formal activity. When you engage someone in a household task, like folding towels or uh helping maybe uh sort Tupperware, put the lid back on, you know, if you have a mess of a drawer and you need and you need the tops to find the bottoms, uh maybe sorting junk mail, you know, these are things that we can also again provide that praise for you are helping me I value that. And Not that women don't need that, but a lot of uh men, they want to feel like they're providing and they have a sense of accomplishment. So sometimes we're just asking for some help and a lot of times it's conversation. They like talking about some trivia on the topic. Maybe they know golf knowledge. Maybe there's still some things firing in the brain. Yes. term memory, yeah. about their love of the sport and different professionals who are in the sport and having conversation about that. We do do quite a bit of uh trivia and, you know, discussion that stems from that at the center. So if you're not a golf fan, you just Google golf trivia and start asking about what happened back in 1955. can Google, you can, as you know, because and again, I go back to that interesting National Day calendar, you can just Google so many different things to tap in to the topic. Google Golf Trivia. And you will be surprised. We did a it was I Love Lucy Day not too long ago. And I found I Love Lucy Trivia. and we um had a really fun time. And a lot of times you'll find some very fascinating facts about a topic and you're really learning along with the person. So, and it's a genuine um reaction when you learn about something together and that can be a lot of fun. Well, thank you so much, Jodi, for all of these great ideas. I think I just want to reiterate that first, you know, lower your own anxiety. If all of this sounds overwhelming, you don't have to do any specific formal activity or game. But asking for help is an easy way of getting engagement because we all want to feel useful and purposeful, especially when you know, previously really independent older adults now need help from other people. And check out the resources that I'm going to link in the show notes. And thank you again, Jodi, for joining us. And I will talk to you next time. much for the opportunity to be with you. Thank you.