Still looking for that perfect gift for your loved one with Alzheimer’s Disease. This is a great article from Caring.com that offers suggestions and ideas for those specific gifts that can help someone that is suffering from this horrible disease. Enjoy this article and if your family needs help with elder care, contact At Your Side Home Care.
Gift Ideas for Someone With Alzheimer’s
For dementia-friendly choices, focus on these 6 key words
By Paula Spencer Scott
As if shopping for picky teenagers and relatives who have everything weren’t hard enough, many gift lists include someone who has Alzheimer’s 
or another dementia. What do you give him or her that’s useful or meaningful?
Mark Warner, the gerontologist behind Alzheimer’s Daily News, offers some suggestions. The key, he says, is to offer gifts that match the new goals of someone who has a disease that hinders information processing, recalling, and performing logical tasks.
“We cannot outsmart the ‘defective’ minds of our loved ones, nor can we easily relate to them. But we can span the chasm of cognitive decline through love, caring, devotion, and, most of all, our own knowledge of what makes them happy,” he says.
Focus on these 6 key words and phrases as you shop, Warner suggests:
Success. Help fuel a sense of mastery when so much is so difficult by giving items like simple puzzles, which are fun to do with others and satisfying to have completed.
Achievement. Those who have always liked word-scramble or crossword books may feel defeated by being unable to complete them any more. But there are editions designed for the cognitively challenged that offer prompts and put a favorite accomplishment back in reach.
Familiarity. Look for things that encourage repetition or that spark the longstanding memories, which are usually held longest — such as a stuffed animal for a former pet lover or a baby doll for a mother.
Life experience. Again, mine the past for old favorites: A football jersey of his favorite team? A simple cookbook with pretty pictures for a onetime chef?
Comfort. Think warm shawls and lap robes.
Sharing. Music or videos of babies or puppies can be enjoyed by a group. And visits and hand-in-hand walks can’t be bought in stores, he says, yet are priceless.
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At Your Side Home Care provides premier elder care in Houston and surrounding areas. For more information about how the At Your Side Home Care caregivers can help your family care for a loved one, call 832-271-1600. We provide companionship, homemaking and personal elder care services for many seniors, veterans and disabled in our community.
Our Certified Nurse Aides, 24-Hour Live-in Assistants and Home Health Aides are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We also provide the security and confidence of 24-hour Telephone Assistance, so fast, reliable help is always available when it's needed. To learn more about our homecare services see our homecare services page.
Different people need different levels of homecare. To meet the requirements of our clients, At Your Side Homecare maintains consistent staffing levels of caring professionals. Homecare service is available for as little as a few hours a week, or as many as 24 hours a day, seven days a week
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