If you have a friend or loved one facing dementia or memory loss, the library offers a tool to help you help them. Memory Care Kits are designed to help people with dementia engage with friends and family, exercise their brains and spend some pleasurable hours remembering experiences from their past. These kits were designed by DBRL staff. Our staff chose themes for these kits that explore common experiences like living on a farm, homemaking, gardening, using tools, and going to a baseball game or to the movies.
That list of themes grows as we release even more new kits through the rest of 2022, so be sure to visit our catalog regularly for more engaging kits. These kits contain music, movies, puzzles, books, tactile items and activities selected especially for a person living with dementia and their family.
Our kits might speak to the interests and hobbies of your loved one, but you may want to go a step further and create something more personal that reaches those you care for directly.
Making your own Memory Care Kit
If you decide to plan a memory care kit for your loved one or friend, consider their current ability levels and keep activities well within the complexity you know they can handle. Since long-term memories are better preserved than short-term memories, build on skills and knowledge they developed early in life.
Photos and ephemera are a great first step in building a collection of items that prompt memories and stories. Make copies of treasured family photos and place them in an album. Be sure to include photographs from the early years of their life. What are ephemera? Think of things like newspaper clippings, saved ticket stubs, certificates of accomplishment and military medals. Keep in mind that items of value could get lost in a nursing facility or memory care unit.
Don’t forget to select a couple of books! Reading books together is highly therapeutic and tends to start pleasant conversation. Select books that are short and simple, but not too childlike in style and illustration. We have found many juvenile non-fiction titles suit this purpose well.
People with degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s are often able to enjoy reading right up into the later stages of the disease, so make sure that they are able to get involved in a reading activity on a regular basis. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren make wonderful reading partners as well.
Include items that stimulate the senses. DBRL kits often include small bottles with cotton balls that have been scented with oils. For example, our “Homemaking” kit has bottles containing the scent of baby powder, vanilla and “fresh cotton”! Music CDs and movies are also very stimulating and you can select pieces of music or movies that are personal favorites.
People with dementia are soothed by having something to do with their hands. Folding clothes, kneading dough, snapping beans are all good examples of simple tasks that can occupy their hands while you interact. Along those lines, include some tactile items in your kit. Tactile items can be as simple as a piece of fabric, like the fabric notebook containing swatches of textured fabric in our “20th Century fashion” kit or the handmade fidget quilt with bows, zippers and buttons in our “Sewing” kit.
While the library isn’t able to include food items in kits, you can provide snacks when you visit your loved one. You know what they love and you have the opportunity to remind them of holiday cookie baking, family dinners, or summers on the porch eating watermelon.
Keep their mind active by including mentally stimulating activities and games. Simple puzzles and familiar card games are a great place to start. Small challenges like a word search or a crossword can give your loved one a sense of accomplishment and stimulate their brain. Play these games and work these activities together to add even more social stimulation to your visit.
While designing these kits for you, DBRL staff have discovered some terrific resources for games and activities. To help you along, we include downloadable lists of resources for further research, a list of products and vendors, and a full tip sheet below.
Memory Care Kit Resources (for further research)
Memory Care Kit Products and Vendors
In the meantime, check out DBRL’s collection of Memory Care Kits. These are high-quality products made with care by your very own local library staff, with some great themes of universal interest and available for a month-long loan period!
