Alzheimer’s and dementia during the holidays

The holidays are about spending time with your loved ones. This becomes increasingly more difficult, as your loved one’s disease progresses. However, it does not mean that they cannot participate in holiday festivities. This season is the perfect opportunity to spend quality time with the individual you care for. From wrapping gifts to decorating your home, there are many ways to connect with your loved one.

The holiday season is a time of nostalgia… many Alzheimer’s and dementia patients may feel lonely or even depressed during this time. One way of alleviating the loneliness is to incorporate traditions from their past. Every December, I would spend the time to bake special cookies with my mom, as her mother once did with her. I noticed that this simple act of baking made her feel comforted and loved. No matter the activity, spending quality time with your loved one is the most important thing you can do for them during the holidays.

Shopping for presents for loved ones during the holidays is always stressful. And shopping for those you love with Alzheimer’s or dementia often seems impossible. For years, I worried about gift selection for my mother. Oftentimes, I wouldn’t purchase an item for my mother thinking maybe she will not know. After all the disease makes her forgetful. Other years I would revert to practical purchases, like more pull-on outfits. Perhaps I was not creative in my thought process until I rediscovered the ease and enjoyment of  a puzzle.

Puzzle with Me is the perfect gift year-round. It has allowed me to spend quality time with my mother, to laugh again and really connect. As a caregiver, this is a great tool and solution for those you care for.

Happy Holidays!

Jane

We all have voices in our mind that tell us that we are hungry, tired or need the bathroom – - – the most basic of  human needs. What happens to those living with Alzheimer’s or dementia? Are those voices silent?

Often people with Alzheimer’s or dementia are verbally silent. Is it the loss of words, fear of using the wrong words, deterioration of the brain, or a combination?

Rarely do we think about the silence of the mind. We can cope with the lack of words. After caring for someone for so long we know them and like to feel we know what they need or what they are thinking. But, what about the silence in their mind?

Is it peaceful? Is it torture?

My mother was silent for long periods of time. Sometimes it seemed days or weeks. I worked hard to find ways to bring out her voice.

One way to break the silence is through therapeutic caregiving techniques like Puzzle with Me.

The fact that you’re reading this blog post indicates that you probably live with or have lived with someone with Alzheimer’s disease. You know that the disease can be devastating – taking our loved one further and further away from us with each passing day. We cling to the hope that somehow the progression will be halted and we can reconnect to the person we know and love.

Our need to reconnect is what drove me to develop Puzzle with Me while my mother was drifting away with Alzheimer’s. The adult puzzles allowed us some wonderful moments of rediscovery while the disease battled to claim her. Those times meant so much to me, and it framed up my desire to communicate the importance of therapeutic caregiving.

While the disease works against us, we have as Alzheimer’s caregivers moments of victory that we can claim.

The work by Alzheimer’s Disease International, Alzheimer’s researchers across the globe, and all of you are helping us beat this thing. Let’s solve it . . . together.

Puzzle With Me™ is a therapeutic solution for caregivers of adults with Alzheimer’s and dementia. We have specially designed and now offer puzzles that caregivers use as tools to communicate and connect.

We’ve chosen images that will either spark a memory of a previous interest or can be used as conversation starters. The activity of putting a Puzzle With Me™ adult puzzle together affords the opportunity for both verbal and non-verbal communication, as well as, conversation and encouragement.

Our unique puzzle solutions are designed with images appealing and familiar to older adults: landmarks, hobbies, and pleasant scenes that will provide an opportunity for conversation. The puzzle pieces are large, and sturdy – ideal for keeping the activity focused on optimizing communications.

Hi, I’m Jane Snyder, a mother and daughter whose family has been deeply impacted by Alzheimer’s disease. My mother suffered with Alzheimer’s for many years. My father and I, like so many families, struggled to find the best ways to care for our loved one.

As my mother’s disease progressed, I found it more and more difficult to communicate and connect. After trying several activities I came upon the idea of helping her complete a puzzle with me. The challenge became finding a puzzle with an appropriate image, since all puzzles with fewer pieces had juvenile themes.

After extensive research and development, Puzzle With Me™ for adults was born! I’m pleased to offer these specially-designed adult puzzles to you as a form of therapeutic caregiving.

Pets can be your very best friend through thick and thin at all stages in life. They are wonderful companion and never are short on love. It’s one reason that we’re finding more and more pets at assisted living facilities. They keep us engaged.

My mother was very fond of dogs. She had lovely chocolate Lab called Buddy. It was Buddy who inspired Puzzle with Me to develop a Pet series because i saw the love between my mother and Buddy.

The adult puzzle “Going Out” contains an image of a very cute dog. It’s available to purchase in several places online including eNasco and Puzzle Warehouse, and you may click on the links around this post to order it. We’ve gotten overwhelmingly positive reaction from adults and caregivers about this one – and it’s one of our top selling products.

Now we’re working on images for cat lovers in our next round of solutions for caregivers. In fact, if you have a photo of your favorite pet and think that others would like it, please send it to me for consideration. Simply contact me through our contact page.

In the meantime, enjoy your pet, and Puzzle with Me. Let’s End Alzheimer’s and Solve it Together.

If you are or have been a caregiver, you know it comes with ups and downs. One thing for sure – caregivers are unsung heroes. It’s often a thankless job – and your personal conviction keeps you going. Thanks for keeping going!

When you’re caregiving an adult with Alzheimer’s or dementia, there are longer days than others. It requires so much patience to keep an even keel and push forward.

Developing Puzzle with Me while my own Mother was fading with Alzheimer’s was a great help for me – knowing that others would benefit from this caregiving solution.

What do you do to keep up your motivation level? What energy do you tap? We all find it from somewhere.

Thank you to all caregivers! Your efforts may often go unnoticed, but we know you’re out there, and your efforts are invaluable and highly appreciated!

Jane Snyder, founder of Puzzle with Me

This weekend I went to a tribute concert to Michael Jackson’s music. When they performed “Man in the Mirror”, all I could think of were the millions of people around the world with Alzheimer’s – and their caregivers.

Caregivers, you are not alone!

If you are reading this you may be a caregiver or certainly know one. Often this role is thrust upon us. And at one or more points you ask yourself – are you the man or woman in the mirror? Will you “make a change”? It may not seem like you have a choice, and in any case you probably have chose to step up.

“If you want to change the world, it begins with the man in the mirror”. That is you, me and all of us who have jumped in to helping someone.

Next I want to change the world of Alzheimer’s to a better place – 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, soon!  I’m sure you do, too. We take it seriously, because we MUST make a change!

Please reach out to me at Puzzle with Me and let’s make each day better for our caregivers and those living with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Support us – and Alzheimer’s Disease International – and Puzzle with Me – to expand the movement. End Alzheimer’s – and while we’re ending it, let’s practice therapeutic caregiving.

Let me know what you think!

And thanks Michael Jackson!

I’m Gonna Make A Change,
For Once In My Life
Gonna Make A Difference
Gonna Make It Right . . .

Pretending Not To See Their Needs
A Summer’s Disregard,
A Broken Bottle Top
And One Man’s Soul

I’m Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I’m Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change

Yesterday I read about hope in the Alzheimer’s Reading Room – you can see the post by clicking HERE.

That is so right – that hope keeps us going. All of us who are caregivers for someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia know that it can get so frustrating. Sometimes we say things that we don’t mean, and the regret from those moments is painful. But we’ve all been through it and it’s natural. What keeps us going is hope.

In this case hope is not necessarily that our mother, father, friend or partner will get better. We hope for some better days than others and for wonderful glimpses of the past. We can hope for a miracle cure, too. Sometimes life surprises us!

Whatever the future holds, our goal is always to make the best of the current situation, and that’s why Puzzle with Me Alzheimer’s and dementia puzzles were created. They are part of a therapeutic care-giving program, and they allow us to find memories and make connections TODAY.

Those memories and connections create smiles, and hope. Hope is a positive emotional state that is the opposite of despair. Let’s find it … together.

The purpose of Alzheimer’s puzzles is to create new connections to memories impacted by Alzheimer’s or dementia. Perhaps we should say recreating memories, because some may have already nearly drifted away. Our Puzzle with Me Alzheimer’s solutions help caregivers bring them back into focus, and certainly allow caregivers to connect more directly.

Today I was reading about Selinda Border who is 50 and has a 9 year old daughter. Selinda has early onset of Alzheimer’s and is working hard to create memories for mother and daughter to relive down the line. We certainly hope that progress will be made in the battle against Alzheimer’s in the meantime so that Selena and millions of current sufferers from this disease will be released from its memory-robbing clutches.

You can read more about Selena’s story here: Memories Left Behind

Jane Snyder of Puzzle with Me here, on the road in France.

I have had the good fortune of traveling to Paris, France for my son’s graduation from University. It was a very happy occasion and a welcome respite as a caregiver.

My mother passed away last year from complications due to Alzheimer’s, and so I also brought my father. What a wonderful trip of reminiscence and discovery – and pride in my son’s accomplishment.

As I settled into the neighborhood and found my morning coffee cafe spot, I became more than just the kind of tourist that the French simply tolerate. One morning I had the opportunity to relax and enjoy the regular patrons. One was a lovely elderly woman – and I knew immediately upon our eyes meeting that she was living with Alzheimer’s.

As she passed the morning in this Paris cafe, she reached out to me with a smile and a wave of her hand. I asked the cafe owner her name – Jeanie – and we engaged in a half English and half French conversation.

Estelle the cafe owner was very kind and treated Jeanie with respect knowing as the hours passed her requests would be repetitive. I witnessed great respect for the elderly in Paris and indescribable patience outside a home or alternative living conditions.

Alzheimer’s is an increasingly global disease, and how we handle it is different country to country. I was proud of what I saw in Paris and the respect they show for seniors, and thought I would be nice if this was a global phenomenon.

Caregiving is a challenging task, and reaching out to someone as I saw in Paris is so relatively easy. What do you think?

End Alzheimer’s – and in the meantime let’s find ways of solving it together.