Dementia Calendars Can Reduce Confusion

My father-in-law Bill has Alzheimers and resides at a very well run, top notch, private pay memory care facility which does a great job of caring for their residents. The staff is professional, caring and hardworking. I only have praise for them. Bill normally has praise for them too and calls them “the kids” even though many of them are middle aged. I guess everything is relative. “The kids” update a whiteboard with the day of the week/date and serve meals at designated times throughout the day. I am sure the whiteboard is kept current and the meals are served on time; however, Bill feels the whiteboard isn’t updated and that the meal times changes daily. Clearly he is confused. This is his only complaint with the facility but it creates much stress and anxiety in him. It is a frequent topic of conversation when we visit.

What to do? Like many caregivers of older people who want to know the day and date, we provided Bill with a wall calendar and encouraged him to “X” the days as they went by. We quickly found out, not surprisingly, that he was incapable of doing this. Sometimes the X’s were far behind the actual date and other times they were into the future. We needed a plan B. Fortunately, while looking for a Christmas present for Bill, my wife came across dementia calendars. We’ve never heard of them before but they seem to be a perfect gift that will solve Bill’s calendaring and timing problems. So what is a dementia calendar? It is an electronic calendar that was designed with people with dementia in mind. Typically they have the following features:

• Battery operated so the day-of-the week, date and time are always current

• Big, bold, sharp characters so it is easy to see

• Extra spacing between characters to limit them blending into each other for those with poor vision

• Discrete sections, perhaps with different colors, that are easily differentiated to reduce confusion

• No abbreviations such as AM or PM, instead words are used such as morning, afternoon and evening

• Auto dimming at night

• Sits on a table or desk and can be wall mounted

The image below displays many of the design features of a typical dementia calendar.

We bought one and gave it to Bill for Christmas. He loved it. It sits on his nightstand and I was surprisingly impressed with how much the design features make it easier to read. It has only been a week but I’m thinking it will reduce his stress caused by not knowing the day/date and time.

There are many brands and models of these calendars online and they are relatively inexpensive, typically under $60 and I’ve seen them as low as $28.

Have you used a dementia calendar? If so has it been beneficial? What other gifts have been useful in caring for those with Alzheimers?

Thoughts?