Support groups

George enjoys seeing me each day. He is still aware of who people are and seems quite settled.

When the carers ask who wants to go through to another area for an activity I have noticed that George just sits there. I suspect he doesn't know what is going on. I encouraged him to go one day this week when I was there. It was some entertainers who come in each week, they sing and the whole thing is very interactive to include the audience. George loved it. I have told the care givers to tell him to come so he doesn't sit back. He loves these things but needs the encouragement and support to go.

This week I have set up two support groups for people. The first one is for people who have someone in care. There are six of us at this stage and we meet in a mall. Our buses go between all the malls in the city and are free for those over 65.

I made sure I was there a few minutes early to greet the others. The first to arrive was a woman who recently put her husband into care and is suffering from feelings of guilt and is rather depressed. Her face lit up when she saw me waiting. When we left she told us all how much better she felt after the time we spent together and really she had a spring in her step as she left, so worthwhile. Everyone felt that they wanted to keep the group going so we have arranged monthly meetings.

The other group I set up is for parents of some of my old pupils. I found out by accident that one of my old parents is suffering from depression and not going out. She would also lock her doors and not answer. She really wanted to be able to out. I organised for another one of my old parents to pick her up and the three of us met for coffee and a chat. She loved it and felt very comfortable. We have organised to meet weekly. Many people here are still traumatised and suffering from depression after the earthquakes. I realise that people who have not been through some of these things would think 'get over it'. It is not that easy.

So good we can share information, have a laugh in a relaxed informal manner and build up a rapport to support each other.

A down day

Last night George was up and down during the night. This morning I found, in the lounge, a mountain of pillows and clothes on the sofa and chairs. He did not have to get up early (just as well) as the caregiver does not arrive until 10 o'clock. He has slept a lot today and really not been with it. While he is asleep I do not disturb him as he must be catching up on last nights antics - like a teenager!! Took me some considerable time to sort it out this morning.

He is becoming very frail and I do worry about him falling but he has lots of walking sticks around the house as he leaves them in all sorts of places.

Last night the caregiver asked about what the clapping meant and I said I wasn't sure but he did it a lot. It could be

• happy
• telling you to get a move on
• he appreciated whatever was going on
• he just likes the sound of it

Not sure myself, probably a bit of each one. 

Animals and children

Something I have found with both Mum and George is that they love interaction with both animals and children. Strangely children do not see anything unusual in any of the behaviour they display but are very accepting unlike many people. George was not a lover of animals but loves to pat Fluffy Bum.

Fluffy Bum (being a Persian) is not the brightest cat in the world. She loves me feeding the birds each day and gets very excited about it all. Luckily she is not able to run very fast and tends to charge at them like a bull. I think the birds find her funny and it does not deter them from coming for their food. George loves to watch her especially at these times when she is being so active.

Walkabout

Luckily George does not wander off. This is one of the things that causes many people to need to have their relative in a safe secure environment.

He does like to think he goes out walking. Yesterday he got all ready and went out for a walk. He then hooked his walking stick over a rail and came back in. He continued to do this until he then had 6 walking sticks outside. He then went down to the gate and back.

When he returned he told me he had been

942 steps

Today I asked if he was going for a walk. He told me he wasn't as he had been on this big long one. I was surprised he remembered but...

A good day and night

Wow, we had a great day and night. I took George out for about 4 hours yesterday and also out to feed a neighbour's cat. One of the things we did while we were out was to put freesias on my mum's grave. These were a favourite flower of hers. We went near my childhood home and fed the ducks. A little girl came along and shared the bread to feed the ducks. I can't say the weather was good but it wasn't raining. I must have tired him out and he did not wake during the night - a first for a very long time. He woke this morning 'full of fluffy ducks' and seems happy and relaxed (fingers crossed).

It takes a lot of time to do this sort of thing but I guess it is worth it. Not a lot done at home!!

Dancing

I have seen that music and dancing are two things that most of those with Alzheimer's enjoy and participate in to a greater or lesser degree depending on what they are able to do.

Two years ago I took George to a afternoon with dancing followed by a high tea. George loved it. Here he is dancing with a school friend of Mum's who also has Alzheimer's. I was reminded of this when I picked him up from the club on Thursday. He had had a wonderful day. They had arranged a singer during the afternoon and many of them (including George) had danced the afternoon away.



Unfortunately he is starting to get frustrated with the language as he has lost so many words and is finding it hard for others to understand what he is talking about. For someone to whom language was such an important part of their lives this must be very frightening.

Keeping one's head above water

George does the strangest things as well as things that can be very irritating.

One thing he does is goes through papers and books. He pulls them all out and scatters them all over the place. I got him a box to keep a lot in in the lounge which helps but he then goes and pulls down all the ones that are stored in the top of the wardrobe and has piles of them everywhere. I spend hours tidying those up.

Last night I was getting the evening meal and had put knife and fork on the table. He sat at the table and picked up the knife and fork and began to eat an imaginary meal. After doing this for some time he turned and said to me " I don't seem to be getting anywhere with this"...

Also last night he got his onesie off and his pad. He put on track pants! I woke up and realised this so had to get his track pants off and his pad on. He wouldn't wake and it took ages as he was a dead weight and it was not easy. I am going to get the safety pins used on babies so maybe that will stop him (I hope so).

Today he went out for coffee (twice) so he was happy about that - once was a free one from McDonalds which is great.

Learning to cope

I now have George wearing continence pants which are working better however with either the pants or the pads when they get wet he just takes them off and dumps them on the floor somewhere. At night, if I wake up and see this has happened I immediately wake him and put more on. One just needs to be vigilant and monitor their movements.

While he loves to go out at home he will just sit and sleep on the sofa. He also just waits to be fed!! In order to stimulate them it is important to find the time to do things with them such as:

• looking at and discussing photos
• quoits
• dominoes
• scrabble
• jigsaws
• making cards
• doing a mosaic

These will encourage memory and language.