Memories in the Making: St. Patrick’s Day Activities for the Person with Alzheimer’s

From the Alzheimer’s Association’s “Memories in the Making” flyer comes this very relevant quote, “Studies show expressing and connecting through art in a safe and social environment can bridge communication gaps, increase self esteem and stimulate the brain of a person with dementia.”  St. Patrick’s Day activities, when carefully chosen, can do just that! The activities we’ve chosen for the weeks leading up to St. Patrick’s Day have given our friend a sense of accomplishment and purpose, plus they’ve been great fun!

At our Lady-Links visits with our friend who has Alzheimer’s dementia, we have seen the reality of that quote.  Our friend is more expressive both with oral communication and non-verbal communication such as smiles, laughter, and willingness to engage in what we’re doing.  She is more confident and asks for more supplies when what we have given her as her portion of the group activity begins to run low.  We are thrilled with this increase in communication, social skills, self-esteem and participation.

We selected two card designs using peel-and-stick craft foam shamrocks.

Our friend loves to peel and stick.  She can use glue with our help, but she can manipulate the shamrock stickers by herself and enjoys doing so.

Our cards that we make are used throughout our retirement community in a variety of ways, so we always have several designs to suit multiple purposes.  Some include scripture.  Some include humor.  Some are a combination, but all are encouraging.

On alz.org there is a list of 101 activities to use with a person who has Alzheimer’s, and Bingo is listed as one of those recommended activities.  I have found that the traditional Bingo card is rather complicated for our friend.  To locate a number under a letter would not be something she could do very easily, so when we’ve played Bingo I have made my own cards with pictures and no numbers.  I was about to do that for St. Patrick’s Day when I visited a blog by carrieelle.com which has given me ideas for some of the activities we’ve done at our previous visits,  and found a linkup to play2learnwithsarah.com which had downloadable St. Patrick’s Day Bingo cards with pictures already made.

My suggestion is to find activities that you think could be used successfully with your friend or loved one, modify them if necessary, and check out the alz.org website to see how to best use those activities at a visit.

St. Patrick’s Day, as well as all holidays, offers a reason to make a visit to your friend or family member who is in any type of cognitive decline.  Prepare a few activities that you both can enjoy together and spend an hour enriching the life of someone who needs it.  You’ll find that you enjoy it as much as they do.  Blessings to you!