Seniors with dementia are often faced with a difficult situation. They may have to take care of themselves, but their cognitive abilities are often drastically reduced. This can make even the simplest tasks impossible for them—and they need help getting through each day.
The good news is that there are lots of apps out there that can help seniors with dementia stay safe and healthy, as well as feel more comfortable in their own homes. The bad news is that there are so many apps out there that it can be hard to choose one!
So we’ve done a little research for you and compiled a list of some great apps for seniors with dementia. These apps will help your loved one stay connected to family members and friends; keep track of medications; and even alert you if something goes wrong (like falling or getting lost).
Best Apps For Seniors With Dementia
If you love someone with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, you know how devastating this illness can be—not only to the person diagnosed, but to family members and others who love and care for the patient. If you have a family history of Alzheimer’s, you may be concerned about your own future. Did you forget that name because you’re busy and distracted, or was that memory lapse a sign of worse ones to come?
There is no cure for Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, though progress is being made. In the meantime, technology offers help for patients with dementia, as well as those who are involved in their care. Here are ten apps, and other activities, designed to help with various aspects of dementia, and even to help stave off mental decline for those who are worried about developing it.
MindMate
MindMate is an app developed by three young people who were involved in caring for seniors with dementia—one of them a beloved grandparent. This free app, available for Apple, Android, and computers, offers brain games and workouts to help with attention, memory, problem-solving, and cognitive speed. MindMate also features other tools to stimulate brain and general health, promoting good nutrition, physical exercise, mental stimulation, and social interaction. The site allows you to take a memory test online and promptly emails you your results.
Constant Therapy
Constant Therapy is an app for smartphones and tablets. Offering cognitive, language and speech therapy, it is designed to support patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as those recovering from brain injuries including stroke. The award-winning program was developed by scientists at Boston University and adapts to keep patients challenged, but not frustrated. Subscribers have unlimited access to a library of brain rehabilitation exercises for $24.99 per month or $249.99 per year. There is also a version available for clinicians to use with their patients.
Piano With Songs
People who struggle with memory issues often find music therapeutic and relaxing. Piano with Songs is a free app for Apple phones and iPad that lets users play the piano, even if they haven’t played in years (or ever). With a library of thousands of songs, people with Alzheimer’s and dementia can use the app to access old favorite songs and unlock good memories in the process.
Alz Calls
Caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients are familiar with the repeated phone calls and questions from a frightened loved one who needs the reassurance of hearing their voice. Unfortunately, many caregivers are not always available to provide this reassurance due to work and other obligations.
Caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients are familiar with the repeated phone calls and questions from a frightened loved one who needs the reassurance of hearing their voice. Unfortunately, many caregivers are not always available to provide this reassurance due to work and other obligations. Alz Calls is a chatbot designed for patients who repeatedly ask for their family, struggle with transitions to new environments, or need social interaction. Family members can record their voice, add a photo that will pop up for the patient to recognize, and answer frequent questions so that the patient can have an interactive conversation when the caregiver is not available to talk.
Spaced Retrieval by Tactus Therapy
Patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia often have trouble retrieving information they have recently heard or seen. Tactus Therapy offers apps for cognition and language problems, including spaced retrieval therapy to help patients remember new information longer using evidence-based memory techniques. The app is available for $4.99 for both Android and Apple devices.
Lumosity
Lumosity is one of the earliest brain-training apps developed, and it continues to be popular after more than ten years, with over 100 million users. The app’s scientists create fun, challenging, easy-to-learn brain games based on established cognitive training exercises. The app boasts peer-reviewed studies that show that it improves cognition. Available on Apple and Android as well as online, Lumosity costs $14.95 per month, but costs go down significantly if you subscribe for a year or longer, and lifetime subscriptions are also available.
Jigsaw Puzzles Real
Jigsaw puzzles are great for entertainment and promoting focus, but they take up a lot of space, and they’re not very portable. Real Jigsaw Puzzles is a great free app, available on Apple and Android, for seniors who enjoy jigsaw puzzles and could use some brain stimulation. There is a wide variety of puzzles available, and you can adjust the number of pieces per puzzle from 9 to 1000.
AmuseIT
Isolation can be a problem for those living with dementia, and it can be difficult for those who care for them to know how to engage. AmuseIT is an app designed to promote conversation. It contains over 1000 simple quiz questions with a strong visual component. In addition to facilitating connection between dementia patients and caregivers who use the app, AmuseIT stimulates memory and reasoning and is easy to use, even for those intimidated by technology. It is available on Apple and Android devices for less than five dollars.
Word Search Colorful
An app doesn’t need to be complicated to be helpful or engaging. Word Search Colorful is a classic word search game available on Apple and Android, and it’s free. It involves words hidden within blocks of letters; instead of needing to circle the words with a pen, a swipe of the finger provides a colorful highlight.
MEternally
Technology is great, but there are many seniors with dementia who don’t have access to a smartphone or tablet, or just are not interested in using them. There are lower-tech developments that can help them, too. MEternally is a website that offers photo and activity cards, DVD, and other tangible tools to promote reminiscence for seniors with memory loss. The site offers various collections, including “Nature,” “Patriotic,” and “Favorite Things” in an effort to help people make connections and share joy through reminiscence.
If you are concerned about memory loss in a loved one, or the potential that you could develop Alzheimer’s or dementia, contact our elder law attorneys to make a plan and learn what resources are available to you.
free games for seniors with dementia
As you or your loved ones grow older, it’s natural to think about combatting certain possibilities of aging like dementia. This affliction is devastating to individuals and families alike, even with the recent advances in modern medicine. While there are many factors at play in determining who this disease affects, there are still tons of activities and hobbies to check out that will help keep the mind sharp. Though it may seem surprising, one of the best ways to activate the brain is by playing games, both online and in video game form. We may have once considered these as simply as toys for children, but by playing interactive games we can help to fight against cognitive decline. Here are some of the best online games for seniors to help fend off dementia.
Lumosity
One of the most popular brain-training resources, Lumosity pairs neuroscience with game developers to create fun and addicting puzzles that strengthen your mental ability. These games focus around memory training and have over 85 million users worldwide. The puzzles can be simple and fun and rarely feel like work or a task. In fact, there are users from all sorts of demographics; even young people have joined to strengthen their study skills.
AARP “Stay Sharp” Games
You can feel confident knowing that this one is brought to you by the most trusted name in senior citizen affairs. This AARP-sponsored site seeks to first find a baseline of your cognitive ability by having you take the Brain Health Assessment, a test developed and designed by scientists. Going forward, the games are then tailored to improve certain categories of your mental strengths. These could include discovery, connections, attention-span, and memory. You can even choose games to help you fight stress and relax, which has been proven to have a positive and measured effect on preventing Alzheimer’s.
Eidetic
Eidetic’s mission statement – “Learn and Remember Anything” – may seem a bit bold. However, it’s rooted in real and provable science. These games are centered around the memory-boosting concept of spaced repetition. This technique helps users to memorize anything, from phone numbers to vocabulary words to banking information, by repeatedly quizzing you on this information and then increasing the time intervals between tests. For instance, if you’re trying to memorize a phone number, it may ask you to enter it and then ask you again a few minutes later, followed by ten minutes, 30 minutes, and then an hour. These games also differ from other similar services by using items that have meaning and context, allowing users to set specific and attainable memory-based goals. This application is available as a free iOS download, meaning for those with an iPhone that your games can come with you on the go.
Super Mario Odyssey
Though this one might come as a shock, researchers have recently found evidence that playing games similar to Super Mario for as little as two months could very well refine brain capacity and fend off symptoms of dementia. Specifically, the scientists studying this effect found that “playing three-dimensional (3D) platform video games and puzzle or logic games was associated with a greater grey matter in the navigation area of the brain.” It’s also one of the best-reviewed console games of all time and can be played with others, including grandchildren who will be thrilled to join in on the fun.
For senior citizens, keeping the mind sharp has become as much a medical focus as heart or lung health. Dementia is a difficult and impactful disease and anything that can be done to fend off mental decline should be considered. Though it may seem a tad silly, these online games can be an easy and fun way to ensure you or your loved one are keeping mental wellness a priority. However, one thing that’s definitely not a game is financial security. Did you know you can sell all or a portion of your life insurance policy for more than the cash surrender value? This includes term life insurance policies as well and is called a life settlement or viatical. Contact Life Settlement Advisors if you’d like to learn more.
Case Study: Ray sold his business last year and his financial advisor suggested that Ray sell the corporate owned life insurance policy as the need w
as no longer there. Ray received $300k for his convertible term life insurance policy.
Conclusion
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