Port of Call | The Dementia Awareness Podcast

Dementia Aware Activities That Actually Work

• Laura Wayman

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0:00 | 51:57

Why does someone with dementia symptoms stop doing activities they used to love? It's one of the most common questions family caregivers and memory care professionals ask — and the answer isn't loss of interest. It's a loss of the brain's ability to process and participate. In this episode of Port of Call, Laura Wayman, the Dementia Whisperer, and Jocelyn Ives, certified life coach for dementia caregivers, sit down with Ju Tu, CEO and founder of Aegeliss, and Giulia Benvenuto, Community and Partnerships Manager, to explore dementia-aware activities that actually create engagement, connection, and joy.

Ju shares how her family's caregiving experience with her grandfather revealed a gap in the market: almost no dignified, adult-appropriate, dementia-inclusive activities exist. Most options are infantilizing, too complex, or require so much caregiver assistance that the caregiver ends up doing the activity. Aegeliss designs adaptive puzzles, matching activities, and visual aids that meet people where they are — at home and in memory care communities.

This episode answers important caregiver questions like:

  • Why won't my loved one with dementia do activities anymore?
  • Why don't group activities work for people with dementia symptoms?
  • What are good activities for someone with dementia at home?
  • What makes an activity "dementia aware" or dementia friendly?
  • How do you invite someone with dementia symptoms into an activity without causing anxiety?
  • How can meaningful activities reduce caregiver stress and burnout?

You'll learn:

  • Why loss of executive function — not lack of interest — is behind activity refusal
  • How to shift the goal from "checking a box" to creating moments of joy
  • Why positive action statements work better than questions
  • How adaptive puzzles and matching activities meet people at any cognitive level
  • How visual aids, door signs, and routine labels support independence at home
  • Why caregiver confidence ripples out to stronger relationships and better staff retention in senior living

This conversation is for family caregivers, professional caregivers, activity directors, memory care and senior living staff, and anyone supporting a loved one with dementia, Alzheimer's disease, or cognitive decline.

If you've ever walked away from a failed activity feeling helpless, or caught yourself thinking "there's nothing they can do anymore," this episode will change how you think about engagement.

Follow for more dementia caregiver support, dementia education, emotional resilience tools, and real conversations about caregiving. 

laurawayman.com/podcast

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to a space where caregivers are truly seen and heard. Where together we explore caregiving as not just a role or a series of tasks, but as a profound emotional experience. Hi, I'm Laura Weyman, the Dementia Whisperer.

SPEAKER_02

I'm Jocelyn Ife, certified life coach in dementia and emotional awareness for caregivers. Together, we shine a light on the real emotional journey of the caregiver. The guilt, the grief, the frustration, fear, and worry, and the exhaustion. And here we celebrate and honor the strength, courage, and hope, and the small moments of joy and connection that carry you through the journey.

SPEAKER_01

This space is where dementia awareness becomes emotional empowerment and where your story, your feelings, and your resilience matter. Welcome everyone. This is such exciting news. It is just this new dementia aware approach to activities. And how many of you listening out there are struggling either as a professional or a family caregiver? How many of you are struggling with in finding ways to engage your loved one, your resident, your client, your patient in activity? Now one of the biggest misunderstandings about dementia and dementia symptoms is that we believe that people lose interest in activities, but you know what? In reality, they often have the loss of the brain's ability to actually successfully process and participate in these activities. A healthy brain, you know, those of us that are lucky to have this wonderful healthy brain, that healthy brain is performing thousands and thousands of complex tasks automatically. You know, it's even something as simple as maybe getting a glass of water because you're thirsty or playing a favorite game that requires memory processing or paying attention. Maybe those of you with that healthy brain are paying attention to our podcast today, and we truly appreciate that your brain is allowing you to do that. You know, sequencing sequencing when you're, you know, thinking linearly, um, judgment, uh, problem solving, you know, we rarely notice these processes because they're going on and our brains do them so effortlessly when they're healthy. But when a cause of dementia affects someone's brain and they begin to show that with these dementia symptoms, these automatic processes that are so wonderful for us as a with a healthy brain, they begin to break down. And at first, maybe the person is struggling to find the right word or or finding the right name or recognizing someone's face or even repeat a story. You know, maybe they misplace things that are kind of important to them and have difficulty completing familiar tasks. You know, and as the disease or the illness or the stroke, whatever's causing these dementia symptoms, as that progresses, reasoning declines. They begin to not be able to have good reasoning or judgment. And everyday activities become difficult. Those tasks that that person could do before on autopilot, maybe even a year before, now it is it is completely impossible for them to do that without some kind of dementia aware support or help, you know, lifelong skills such as um dressing and bathing and eating and recognizing objects, that can become lost. So what happens then, Joshlyn, when the caregivers have to shift from expecting this independence from their loved one or their client or their patient to providing that cognitive support?

SPEAKER_02

When their expectations are not matching reality, the care staff is left feeling kind of helpless, disappointed, frustrated. And and what happens then is they become less likely to engage with the patient or client or loved one because it doesn't feel good when they do. They walk away just going, well, that was kind of useless. And so it just snowballs really, and ultimately they both suffer.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. And and then family members come in. I mean, we we've heard this. Family members come in. Well, did you get mom to to come play bingo? And the care staff goes, nah, she wouldn't do it. Um, and so then the family members say, We have to make her do it, and and um the family members, you know, thinking, well, we brought them to you in this in this dementia care community, you're supposed to be able to get them to do it, right? And and then the caregivers, the the professional care staff is feeling even more helpless. How does that make that professional care staff feel?

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. And I think when you're when you're doing an activity, like the reason the family member is saying, Did you get mom to go play bingo? is because they're thinking if she was playing bingo, she would be happy, she would feel good, she would feel accomplished. But maybe her cognitive skills are not going to allow her to feel those feelings playing bingo anymore, and certainly not in a group. So we have to kind of back up and get back to why do we even want to do an activity? It's because we want to give them some joy in the moment, some positive feelings. So we need to make sure that the activities we're doing offer them an opportunity to feel that way. Otherwise, everyone walks away feeling disappointed, helpless.

SPEAKER_01

That's exactly what we want to talk about today.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

We want to talk about how can we learn, because we're learning about what's actually happening in the brain and this loss of executive function. How can we learn to fill in those gaps as family members and as professionals? You know, I go into communities a lot, and when I'm going into train, I see this wonderful care staff before they become dementia aware and really understand what's happening. I see this wonderful care staff trying to communicate with those with dementia symptoms as if they had a healthy brain because that's what we've learned all our life, right? And it's not successful and it feels really frustrating. You know, I'll go in and there'll be a uh, for example, a group activity going on, which we're gonna talk about why that doesn't work with dementia symptoms. It works in assisted living with healthy brains, but why doesn't that work? Because I'll go in and I'll see eight people, eight residents sitting in a semicircle, and a wonderful, talented, loving, caring activity director trying to do a group activity. And this is what I see those eight residents doing. There'll be four of them that are sleeping. There'll be two of them that are trying to get up and wander away because they can't engage, their brain won't let them feel good about engaging in that activity because of this executive function loss. And there'll be two that are fairly high functioning that maybe are really um getting some benefit from it.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

So um, Justin, tell us a little bit about how your company, American River Home Care, how you started going in and helping, because what you did is you realized one-on-one is really what's needed.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, absolutely. Again, we kind of shifted the goal from let's do an activity checkbox to let's go in and provide some joy for as many residents as we can while we're in the building. And so music was probably our most popular activity as we because music is a memory that often remains, we started doing music trivia. But just like Laura said, we started to realize that while some of the activities that were group activities like music trivia or we colored big murals, some of the residents actually did enjoy it and they did have moments of joy. But other ones, just like Laura said, got up, walked away, fell asleep, or we were doing it for them and they were just kind of watching us, right? So we decided we need to have kind of a multitude of things available to us. And so we started bringing some of our care staff with us. So for the residents that were further along in their dementia journey and couldn't participate in the group activity, we would pair them up with a caregiver and do something more one-on-one. Because again, our goal was to have left the building and to have created some moments of joy for each resident, not just to check a box and go, well, we did an activity. So we really kind of shifted what our main objective was, and it's really made an impact. And it has helped not only helped us build relationships with these uh memory care communities, but I think some uh bells went off for some of their staff as well.

SPEAKER_01

So it's an entire shift, really, in dementia-aware care activities. And and the success, instead of being measured rather than accomplishment, it really is an emotional experience, you know? And so um some activities that really help make that person feel safe and valued and capable and connected, even for just in the moment. Because positive emotional experiences provide quality of life, not just for the caregiver and for that resident patient client. But this is true even in the home, because both you and I, Jocelyn, in our professional lives, really hear this a lot from family caregivers. You know, I mom can't do this or that that she used to be able to do that we could enjoy. And so now, you know, all I really do is just put her in front of the TV because that's all she seems to be able to do. And so changing their expectations. But you know, Joshly, I want to share our guests with you because I recently had the pleasure of meeting Ju Two, who is the CEO and founder of Ageless, and Julia Benvenuto, community and partnership manager. Now, they're gonna talk a lot about this, but their company was born from Ju's family's personal experience after her grandfather was diagnosed with some cause of dementia symptoms. They discovered um there were very few dignified, adult, appropriate, cognitive, acceptable activities available. You know, I see that too. You kind of go, um, uh, ick, that, you know, that mom, you know, she's not gonna enjoy that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But we have to figure out kind of that in between, what can they enjoy? Or they require constant caregiver assistance, and and really what ended up is the caregiver was doing the activity. Right. So um, I would like to introduce um, first of all, Ju, would you like to just talk a little bit about um your leadership role and then um give Julia an opportunity as well?

SPEAKER_03

Awesome. Thank you so much for the contact statting, Laura, Joyce Ling. It is such an honor to be here. Um, my name is Ju Tu. I started ageless because I was deeply frustrated by the uh search results when I was looking for dignified um engagement activities for my grandparents. Um, my very healthy grandmother was hospitalized twice, um, two years, starting from a few years ago. And I was really surprised. Um, and until I saw firsthand how dementia caregiving could really take a toll on my um one's healthy grandmother's physical and mental health, then I realized that dementia caregiving is truly different and it's uh has deeply impacted the whole family dynamics. So I know how important it is to keep my grandfather engaged so she can have a moment to take a break, um, enjoy things on her own, but also giving my grandfather a healthy cognitive stimulation and so he can you know focus and enjoy. So when I came back to the States from China and I was confident I'm going to find a lot of high-quality, senior-friendly, dementia-inclusive activity on Amazon. And even the search results today really shocked me. You are go you are going to find a lot of um infantizing toddler toys with a repurposed uh listing title. You're going to see a lot of uh things made of low quality of materials that you probably wouldn't even want to touch or feel yourself. Um, and then a lot of existing uh solutions that at least meeting the standard of you know being adult appropriate, there is only one way of doing it. Meaning, if the person's cognition level changes over the time, then it will be really hard for the person to engage. So the chance of failure is pretty high. So, based on all of my personal struggle and from my extensive conversation with care, you know, caregivers and families, I feel like this is the time I really want to make a difference. So I started Ageless in July 2024. Um, and in December last year, I had the opportunity of meeting Julia at the Seattle HTTEC Connect event. Um, and from there, you know, the earlier spark came from a longer conversation, and then we both have shared passion in the dementia care, dementia innovation space. So, Julia, I'm going to let you speak to your journey and your role of community and partnership at HList.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you, Drew, and thank you, Laura and Jocelyne, for having us here today. It's it's such a pleasure. Um, so as Drew mentioned, our path crossed uh just at the end of uh last year when we formally met at this um HTC Connect um event that I actually um organized. Um and just to give you a little bit of background, I am clearly at the beginning of my career, um, but I had the honor of mostly working in the dementia care innovation space. Um before meeting Drew, I was managing an investment uh program for a uh family foundation here in Seattle, and that really put me in front of a wealth of founders and startups, both in the nonprofit and for-profit world, uh, that are actively innovating in the dementia care space. And I was blown away by the amount of you know thoughtfulness and forward-looking thinking and entrepreneurship that I that I saw and that I uh that I experienced myself. Um more personally speaking, I come from a um, I come from Italy, and as you know, Italian families are very matriarchal. So women are at the top of the family pyramid. So I have witnessed my grandmother and then mom, my mom, uh, really being the you know, the engines of our families, but especially the caregiving engines of of our families. So right now I I still have I'm still very lucky to have both of my grandparents, but my grandfather is highly impaired, and my grandma, who is 89 years old, she's his full-time caregiver. And one of the things that I witnessed personally was really engaging my grandfather, just like Jude's grandfather. Also, my grand, my my grandpa was an active reader, he was super into history, loved being, you know, intellectually stimulated, but right now he is um it's we we are really challenged with finding ways to keep him busy and to keep keep him meaningfully engaged. So I really empathize with this. Uh, and even though I'm not a caregiver myself, but I see it through my mom's eyes, I see it through all the caregivers that I had the opportunity to speak with. Um, so I'm really passionate about this, and I am so lucky that I get the opportunity to bring this mission forward alongside you at Ageless that I joined in at the end of February, uh, just a few months ago as the community and partnerships manager. And in a nutshell, um my role is I collaborate, I work closely with senior living communities, memory care providers, so activity directors especially, and other care organizations in the nonprofit care organizations to really bring dementia-friendly solutions into everyday care. Um, so I I had the opportunity to um interact with very a lot of professional figures in uh in the aging space and in the dementia care space. And again, like it's so amazing to learn more every day. And I think you can also testify to this. We are in learning mode. There is it's bottomless. There is just so much for us to to learn about this space. So uh this is just uh this is just a little bit about me and what brings me here today.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm so excited because we say that, Jocelyn and I say that so often, you know, I've been doing this for 30 years and I learn something new every day. And and so it is so necessary for us to take these challenges, you know, um, you know, the the familiar games and crafts that that used to be able to really uh provide joy, they don't do that anymore. And group activities in long-term care, they're overwhelming, they're not really connecting. And and so that that inability to participate, it's really it it has that neurological base, their brain just can't do it anymore. So, you know, of course, and and you both have been to my presentation, so you know this, but really a good dementia-aware caregiver learns to think for them because they have a broken thinker. And that has to do with, you know, any care that we help them with, activities, dining, you know, care um and and support for activities of daily living. So I was so excited when um I came to meet you and talk with you about this because I would like for you to really take those challenges like you did and show some of these wonderful products that family caregivers can use, professional caregivers can use, you know, um Jocelyn's um care staff and in-home care, they can they can take these and and help to use these. It's it's so um global of a solution based um kind of idea.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I would love to um give the audiences a brief introduction of what HLAS does and designs um so you have a better idea. So um, like our company's tagline is independent. Dependence, joy, and connection when it matters most. So it starts with a dependence. How can we allow the person to be more involved in the daily routine, to self-initiate more, so the care partner feels less stressful, less repetitive cueing, less anxiety and stress. So we have dementia-inclusive visual aids like door signs and home and routine label that allow the person to self-orient themselves in the home to create that sense of familiarity and confidence as they look for their bedroom, look for closet, look for pens and pods or utensils in a drawer. What this does is allow the person to have the agency to go to the right place on their own terms without assistance. This is a sense of confidence for the person, but it's also make caregiving less stressful for the caregiver. You know, there's no redirection, less repetitive queuing, and you can you know focus on the relationship versus the physical care part. So it's a wing-wing for both. Um, in addition to independence, we also have joy and connection. So we also have uh dementia-friendly engagement activities that we start with the jigsaw puzzle and matching bamboo stand for ergonomic and sustained focus. Um, our designs allow the person to have sustained focus, which is the really you know where the frustration gets um very easily um seen. I can no longer engage the person for more than four minutes. So, what that entails is a stressful caregiver and awkward conversation, and then it just keeps spike down rolling from there. So, what we're doing differently is we embed multiple entry points into a really simple book format puzzle. This allows the person to engage it in a multitude of ways, just like Jocelyne mentioned earlier. Have a multitude of ways to engage. I'm gonna put ageless aside and just using the traditional puzzle as um, you know, a comparison. So if you're setting up a traditional puzzle for the person, then a caregiver has to be the one brought up the big bulky boxes from the high shelf, putting it all the way, setting up on a table, maybe moving the wheelchair of the person to the table, and making sure all the pieces are dumped out and laid out to the front, and then the pieces might be glossy, and then the reference picture is usually you know not really noticeable. So after 10 minutes of setup, the person is unlikely to engage in a very um either AI image-generated puzzle or a toddler puzzle that are quite you know childish, or a puzzle that they simply cannot understand or see. Um, so we completely reinvented the puzzle experiences as the staple of an activity across the US hold. We realized that the puzzle setup has to be ultra simple for the caregiver to you know get it going. Instead of minutes, we reduce it to seconds. We design it in the book format um with the beauty magnets. So all the um caregivers that need to do is to bring it to the person and then fleep the page open. The reference picture is right in front of them, and the puzzle pieces are embedded in the sleeve. That is very easy to take out, um, and then putting it back. So that is uh you know the trend like easy way of doing the puzzle. But beyond that, we also have included the guided picture template with the exact guideline that is printed on this uh separate sheet. So, what this enables is if the person can no longer do puzzle, which is slightly more challenging, require more cognition, they can still do matching. They can do matching on the side or do matching inside the building area. So they have both the visual support in the front and then the visual support in the back. We've had residents who were uh bored and while waiting for the wheelchair to be repaired, and once they saw you know the puzzle is only 12 pieces, really large and sturdy, they started engaging, looking at this uh Grand Canyon picture and get really emotional, started talking about family trip, engaging the puzzle for about 45 minutes. When his uh uh son came to uh bring the wheelchair to him, um he was telling me I haven't seen that smile in so long in so long. This is magic. Um, and then we also seen like uh residents in memory care that isn't really high, highly anxious prior to the engagement, and once she you know was able to engage and having this sense of confidence building up because of the visual support, and she's able to uh stay focused for about 90 minutes, and then after 90 minutes, she was telling me I feel so much better now. I was really anxious beginning of the day, and now I'm feeling so much better.

SPEAKER_01

So it was that emotional experience, like we're talking about. That's what we really need to understand, and it's an emotional experience for the caregiver as well, because yeah, you know, now that caregiver who is looking at me saying, Well, I don't know how to engage them, um, I say, walk right over there and pick up that puzzle because that is exactly what's going to help both of you feel accomplishment, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, a hundred percent. Um, and the conversation has to be feel feel like natural, not high effort. Um, and then what's even better is if it can be a spontaneous engagement, the person you know walks by, this uh this uh um you know, this super simple table tent with an imitational sign that says please enjoy the puzzle, and it'll pique their interest. They'll probably stop by, sit down, and start engaging it on their own turns. Um, and then flip to the other side is the step-by-step instruction of how they could do the puzzle. So they will never feel embarrassed by not knowing like what to expect. Um, so I think this is also another way of you know bringing engagement in a really natural environment.

SPEAKER_01

I so agree, and it's solving so many challenges in just that that one item. Um, and and you know, a lot of times, um uh and Jocelyn and I talk about this a lot, a lot of times um that caregiver will make the mistake of saying, would you like to come do the puzzle? And there's this tent right there that says, please enjoy the puzzle, which is a positive action statement, because you're telling that person what um what to do and not asking them because that's gonna cause them anxiety. And then, like you said, Ju, on the other side, even if the resident or the um individual, the loved one, the patient, the client, even if they can't read those instructions, there's perfectly clear instructions for that caregiver so that they can step in and think for them. So, you know, every side of this has been really thought through, which I so appreciated when I started um talking with you. And um, and Julia, when you came to me and you said, Oh my gosh, I think we can really partner together because you um so graciously were at my presentation when I was training other professionals about dementia awareness, you could see how that is in such sync with um, you know, learning dementia awareness and then learning the other side, which Jocelyn brings to us about how does this make everybody feel? Because in the end, that's what is most important, right? How they're both walking away with a meaningful moment, the caregiver and that individual who has these challenges, they're, you know, they're walking away, like you said, with feelings of, you know, I did that, value, independence, and joy and purpose. And that's what dementia wear individuals do. It is all about giving more moments of love and safety and security and value and comfort, because that's all we have to give them now. And and it's so um priceless, I guess. Julia, just imagine you're a professional caregiver and you're um trying to get your resident who has dementia symptoms, you're trying to get them involved in in a activity, you know, it's this great activity wants to. How does that make you feel when they resist that? How does that make you feel as a caregiver?

SPEAKER_04

Oh, absolutely. It's uh it creates a lot of frustration and a frustration that might turn into not feeling encouraged to to try to try something different and eventually just giving in and giving up, actually.

SPEAKER_01

And you just feel helpless, like I can't do it right. I I don't know how to do it right. And you how how did you feel, you know, you can put yourself in that family caregiver role, and it's just you and your loved one, and there's no activity director, and there's there's no closet full of activities. How did that feel when um just you know an activity that that your grandfather used to enjoy? How did it feel when you tried to offer that and he couldn't take part in that? How'd that feel?

SPEAKER_03

Um, I will speak from my grandma's perspective, who leap with him every single day. Uh, my grandfather used to be the shop in the house and prepare delicious meals um every day and on important family occasions. And now, because cooking and preparing the meal is a really complicated process that he's unable to do, which you know, the responsibility naturally transferred to my grandma. So it's a lot of uh um, on top of the physical care, it's a lot of planning on her. Um, she has to manage so many decision-making processes throughout a day. It also creates uh just endless mental strain on her. On always have to be the ones thinking about what to not not only for my grandfather what to do, but also for the whole family, like what to eat, how to plan for a family meal, how to plan for breakfast or dinner. So it's just like a lot of build-up of that stress through those micro decisions. Um, stress build-up is I would say the most um impactful uh outcome as a result of that.

SPEAKER_02

I think for the family caregiver, I think it's just so valuable. But for a community, I love this so much because their care staff often walks away feeling like we talked about, kind of helpless, like that didn't really matter. That was a waste of time, and they didn't get anything out of it. But I love this because these will allow the caregivers to feel like they're making a difference. And I think this will allow communities to retain their staff because these caregivers could go to the mall and work somewhere else for the same amount of money and be a whole lot easier. So that they need to get some sort of satisfaction, some value out of their job. And to have a consistent staff in a memory care or dementia care community is huge, right? Because they really get to know these people, they get to love them. So I love this so much because I think it trickles out to an even bigger benefit to the community.

SPEAKER_01

And it helps with those, you know, this is this is helping to implement more coping strategies emotionally for the caregiver. Because like we were just talking about, I often hear this from family caregivers or professional caregivers. Well, you know, I I don't know how to do it. I, you know, I'm I you know, I just I just set them in front of the TV, you know, um, and and giving them these feelings of empowerment and confidence and and value. Um, and this puzzle is is beautiful, it's enjoyable. It's not just really something that that the resident or the individual in the home is going to enjoy. You know, everyone's enjoying this. And um, when I was working in leadership in long-term care and and in in my whole dementia care, um what the way that I trained the staff is that anytime they did a task, they should be incorporating some kind of activity into that task. Never a task without some activity. So I tried to support them, um not near as well as you all are with your products, but I tried to support them by I went to Goodwill and got the big um picture books that you put on a coffee table that you go to Goodwill and they're like five bucks. You try and buy them online, they're like 200 bucks, but I got some of airplanes and automobiles, or um I got some of babies or picnics or World War II. And I would have those all around. And the way that I train the staff in what I call dementia aware activity approach is that if you know if they brought them to the table um waiting for a meal, don't just leave them there. Start a conversation, put a picture book in front of them and start a conversation so that they can be enjoying, even if it's just a meaningful moment, they can be enjoying a meaningful moment where they see a pretty picture that they can relate to and or have a short little conversation with the caregiver or someone else sitting at the table, another resident. And you can see how this um that that um puzzle would be so great because not only are they looking at a beautiful picture, they're involved and engaged in touching it and feeling it and putting the puzzle together and carrying it around and opening it up, and it's just so much um more. And yet it is so dementia-ware. And and like Jocelyn and I talk about, um, we want to give these caregivers these feelings of, you know, I am doing enough. I'm doing more than enough. When, you know, I have all of these tools that I can do more than enough, right?

SPEAKER_02

And it leads, oh, sorry, Lori, it leads them to more ideas because when you have when you have an activity that was unsuccessful, let's say, and they're gonna have thoughts like that was a waste of time, or they're they don't like anything anymore. There's nothing they can do. And so what happens when you head your brain in a certain direction is it starts looking for proof of that, it wants to prove that true, and it'll find all the different things that they can't do, right? See, there's nothing they can do, and we just kind of give up. But what you're doing, too, is you're offering the caregivers an opportunity, opportunity to think different thoughts, like, oh my gosh, there is stuff they can do. And then what happens in your healthy brain as a caregiver is you're headed that direction, and pretty soon you're looking all over, you're thinking of new things they could do, right? You're wanting to prove that true, and that that's just the way our brains work, and that's why it's so important the sentences in your head, because they are like a steering wheel and they head you in that direction. So, like I just love this so much because you are offering not only your products, but there will be more to come, I'm sure, that you um come up with, and then also the caregivers figure out on their own because they're starting to believe there is a way for everybody to have some moments of joy, some engagement, some connection. So I love it.

SPEAKER_04

I I love what you point out there, Jocelyn. Um, you know, you we are really about making caregivers the best caregivers they can be by providing them with these sort of tools. Uh because there, I mean, there is once a caregiver feels confident and good about what they're what they're doing, that has a a huge impact on the relationship with you know with the the resident if we are talking in a care setting, but I mean, even more so in a family setting, you know, like we know we know like you know, family caregivers and their relationship with their loved ones living with dementia symptoms, they erode, it become really challenging, it become sadly very difficult. So think about the the difference, the impact that a caregiver, a family caregiver that feels very good, that feels like confident and ready and know how to tackle this rainy afternoon with nothing to do, like that has that is going to have a beautiful and long-lasting impact on the relationship. So I really love what you point out there.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. I agree, I agree so much. If you feel good about what you're doing, you start to identify. If I decide I'm a good mom, then all my decisions throughout the day, I'm identifying myself as let's see, what would a good mom do? Because I'm a good mom. Okay, I know what to do. So you're exactly right. It just ripples out when the caregiver feels confident and good about themselves and what they're doing and their impact. It just continues to grow.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah, repo fact. Um Julia can tell you more about this, but just we had a um a creative challenge, like how many ways you can use the puzzle. And then in one of the local memory care, um, we love the set with the activity director. And Julia, do you do you want to share um to the audiences how many ways they have down that at Jefferson House?

SPEAKER_04

Yes. Uh, I mean, I've witnessed uh activity directors, but even at a memory cafe, the program leader come up with like 10 plus ways of doing the puzzle. Uh so you know, we think of the puzzle as an individualslash independent activity, and that's how we actually originally designed it, but then you know, we we go to this memory care and this memory cafe here locally in Seattle, and you know, their their staff is like, but this is we turn this into a game with multiple residents around the puzzle, right? So it it turned into this great opportunity for to spark inter-resident engagement because after all, in a memory care community, they're family, they live there 24-7, right? And and we know that like as as relationships in one household, they be can become, you know, a bit uh rough at times. But the opportunity to come together around a table and doing uh an activity together and engage together, it's is priceless, really priceless for the residents and for the caregiver staff as well. So a couple of ideas that we heard from activity director is you know, splitting the the puzzle pieces in two, having two residents working on the puzzle together. Um, and that also another beautiful like emotional experience that we saw was you know cheering each other up and you know motivating each other. That that was just that was just great. Like seeing residents hi-fiing each other. Oh great, you can do this, like this, and then problem solving together. That was amazing. Uh, a couple of other ideas is let's do the puzzle with your dominant end one way, and then the second puzzle with your non-dominant hand. Uh, there are great ways to approach this because after all, it's not about we're not reinventing the wheel, right? But we're thinking intentionally and more thoughtfully about how can we make an activity dementia aware? How can we make it as adaptive as possible that it meets people where they're at without any, you know, it's a non fail engagement opportunity. So for us, for us, this is this has been this has been an incredible journey. And as I mentioned earlier. We're learning so much from caregivers, from residents and people living with dementia symptoms themselves and from the all the different care professionals that we're meeting on our day-to-day.

SPEAKER_01

It's so exciting. It is that shift. And so what I see, um, because we came together the way that we did, is you know, my part as the dementia whisperer is I make you a dementia aware expert. I help you to understand, you know, the ins and outs and what's really happening in that person's brain and why they're not communicating and engaging and um um acting a certain way like they did before or or completing tasks or or all of that. That's my part. And then you all come and you take that information and help the caregiver with that dementia-aware engagement, utilizing that knowledge, but then perfecting it so that they can enjoy the activity. And then Jocelyn's coming along and surrounding us all with emotional awareness so that we feel good about these complex emotions and also learn to go from helplessness to feelings of accomplishment as a caregiver and empowerment and and that that frustration and that sadness and and learning to really change our expectations, you know, and and change our thought patterns. I love when I learned from from Jocelyn about this because, you know, just the questions you ask yourself, you know, well, why couldn't I do that right? To I'm gonna learn to do this right because it feels good, right? And changing that whole expectation when we come together, we really do end up making that successful caregiver, both family and professional. But you see how we have to spread this word, and that's what's so absolutely wonderful about today, because you know, there's all these ways that we can help our listeners beyond this podcast.

SPEAKER_02

So if a memory care wants to buy, do you kind of sell them a package? Do they get a no how do or they just go on the website and buy singular items or talk about that? If I'm a community, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. They can directly go to our website and purchase. Um, and if um and we offer um discount for first-time customer and for customers who are above uh like a 350 threshold.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Um if you uh the uh it's going to be an even bigger purchase and then we'll like continuously uh purchase over the time, then we can talk about volume discounting and a customized proposal. I think the easiest way of finding ageless, um a few ways. We are active on LinkedIn and Instagram, and our company name, although pronounced as ageless, we spell in an unconventional way. So our spelling is A-E-G-E-L-I-S-S, which is um, you know, aging can be in different forms, and there's not a traditional, like there's no singular way, but we want it to, you know, people can thrive at their own pace, can blossom at their own times. So that's why I um, you know, ageless is spelled this uh unconventional way. Um you can also find us directly uh at our website, browse our collection, both visual aids and engagement activities at um ageless.com, which is a-e-g-e-l-i-s-s.com. Um, we are definitely uh with the uh aspiration to expand into different language packs, uh different um depth, different like puzzle image variation, engagement activity types, so we can really meet people at what they are by providing choices. Um so yeah, find us on Instagram, like us, engage with us, share your thoughts, and also um on you know on the uh YouTube, you can find our podcast.

SPEAKER_04

Um and I just want to point out that we are we are a team of two right here, uh actually three more recently, but uh so they you know if you need any, if you have any questions, if you need any uh anything from us, you know that when you reach out to us, you're gonna get like a high-quality customer service or just the ability to just talk to us directly, uh, which I think is uh is very important. Um, so we are we're always looking forward to connecting uh one-on-one with uh with the people that are interested in in age list.

SPEAKER_01

Have either one of you take in my quiz about dementia awareness. You need to go do that. It's very interesting because um you will find that we still with dementia awareness, we still have lots to learn, but it also will connect you to many other supportive services. You can go on my website, laurawayman.com, and you can find it. You can find it all over Facebook. Um, and and come join us on on the support group too. It's it's a live group, it's absolutely free. And so, um, like I said, um it that will be, but it's the last Tuesday of the month at 5:30. So make sure you join us there or send anyone to us there. Of course, we want to be as supportive as possible. We do um um Zoom consultations, we can do them either separately or together, where we um we can provide those. And if you come to us through the support group, it um we have discounted rates for our Zoom consultations, which really is dementia awareness, emotional awareness. We can talk about you all if they're needing some ideas about activities, um, just giving more resources. So um you can also find us um for for um Zoom consultations once again on my website. When you go take that quiz, you can um I can um sit with you and Jocelyn can also join us, and we can do um a free initial consultation on Zoom just so that we can really customize any time we have together.

SPEAKER_02

Well, first of all, thank you guys for being on the podcast. But I just want to say, like, oh my gosh, I hope you realize what you did. Like you saw a need, and most people would have just said, well, that's frustrating. I don't know what to do. But you didn't, you started a company and you're solving problems for families, like it's awesome. I hope you realize that. Thank you very much for doing that because the people are out there and they need you and they need these products. So, anyways, thank you. Thank you for seeing us. We really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you so much for sharing today.

SPEAKER_01

Remember that caregiving is not just a responsibility, it's a deeply human experience. And you, every one of you, deserve support and clarity and compassion all along the way. So be sure and join me, Laura Wayman, the Dementia Whisperer.

SPEAKER_02

And me, Joshua Knight, certified life coach for dementia caregivers. We are both here to remind you that you're not going through this alone. Your emotions are valid. Whatever you're feeling, is exactly what you should be feeling right now. And your resilience is real. I know, and Lord knows that some days you probably feel like you're sinking. And on better days, you feel like you're barely floating. We are here to teach you to swim.

SPEAKER_01

We wish you calm seas and gentle winds on your Dimetric Care Journey. And we want to welcome you back next time and every time as we continue exploring the truth, the tenderness, and the transformation within this caregiving journey. Thanks for listening. Please like, subscribe, and leave us a review.