Keeping the brain active
During the current coronavirus pandemic, we have been wanting to raise everyone’s awareness around the particular issues for people living with dementia and their families and make suggestions on what we might all do that could be helpful.
Everyone’s situation will be different, but Wendy Mitchell recently posted a very eloquent blog on the impact of isolation – see https://whichmeamitoday.wordpress.com/2020/03/17/the-dreaded-c-word/.
One of the things Wendy said which struck us was this:
It’s not the isolation I worry about, it’s the lack of ‘doing’, of stretching my brain that’s involved in planning a trundle, planning an event, planning the plan B, meeting people, being exposed to different conversations in different environments. All things that keep my dementia at bay on a daily basis. [. . . ] I just know my health will suffer in far worse ways than the Corona Virus could unless I find new routines, new stimulation to combat dementia…
So if you have a friend, neighbour or family member with dementia who is going to miss the daily challenges that keep his or her brain active, it will be worth working out with them what you can do that would help. Can you offer to play on-line scrabble or send each other cognitive challenges?
Let us know what ideas you have that will keep our brains ticking over at this challenging time.
We are now recruiting for the MSc Advanced Dementia Studies starting in September 2020