“ The Best Activities To Stimulate Mentally Ill Seniors”
Senior Health Care Tips for elderly depression

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Mental stimulation of the mentally ill seniors in you care can work wonders fro your mental health as well as theirs. Playing with them, which is essentially what it is, will provide you with a welcome break from your usual caring routine. Setting aside a specific time frame every few days will also ensure that you are doing something fun with them.

For the senior, it often proves to be the highlight of their week because they finally recognise something and respond to it. It breaks the monotony for them and can actively be used to calm them. They also see a light every now and then in the dark tunnel of the mind, and they can often remember it and look forward to it.

It is important to mentally stimulate elderly people in your care to keep their minds as sharp and active as possible. Seniors with Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and dementia, amongst other ailments, must exercise their minds as often as possible and finding the right ways to achieve this could take forever, unless you have a little bit of help and advice. Medical research has found that some forms of stimulation are better than others because of the way in which the mind responds to certain stimuli.

Bright colours have been found to work best by the various studies that have been carried out. Playing with rag dolls, and brightly coloured balls have worked wonders in keeping their mind active. In fact, if you ask them to do something whilst they are concentrating on the colours will more often than not result in them doing it. This exercise is, of course, purely for fun because it has no direct meaning attached to it.

However, there are certain activities that do have meaning and can also be used to exercise them physically as well as mentally. Examples of games that are brightly coloured and serve a purpose are puzzles. You can find large piece jigsaw puzzles of clown and balloons. Not only do the colours draw their eye, but you can also encourage the individual senior to try and place the piece, with a little help of course!

Outdoor activities that involve animals are also perfect activities for mentally disabled seniors. For example, walking a dog will afford them responsibility and give some meaning to what they are doing, as well as enhancing their perception of themselves effectively. The responsibility of looking after another living creature can brighten up even their darkest days.

Dogs are perfect for such activities because they are loving and affectionate and provide a warm and loving response to any fuss and attention they receive. Obviously, any such activities must be carried out under close supervision to ensure that the safety of all is maintained.

It is important that you, as a carer, do all you can to make sure that seniors in you care remain in the best of health as far as is under your control. Activities like the one above can be fun for bother the caregiver and receiver. They have integral benefits and tend to bring the best out in seniors with mental diseases and illnesses. Never underestimate the power of activities!

Once you have tried one with a degree of success then be sure to inject a variety of activities into your routine so that the senior in question does not get bored too easily. Keeping it all fresh for them will help you do your job that little bit better!

Counting To More Than Ten: Coping With Unreasonable Behaviour When Caring For The Elderly

We have all, at one time or another, been out shopping or in public when a child has started to throw a tantrum. The parent inevitably tries to calm the child but only succeeds in making him or her worse. The parent is always embarrassed and you have immense sympathy for them.

You go through the motions of feeling sorry for them and calling the child everything from spoilt to moody. Ultimately though, you are glad that it wasn’t you. Ironically, if you find yourself in the role of main carer for an elderly relative then you could also find yourself in that positions and, believe me, it is more embarrassing than the parent-child situation.

If you have had extensive experience of caring for the elderly then you will be accustomed to the token temper tantrums that occur every so often, but if you are not then it can be difficult to cope with. What makes it worse is the fact that you are related to the moody adult in question and thus are obliged to put up with it, no matter how difficult it may be at times. However, there are ways of coping with it.

Firstly, instead of thinking how mortified the individual in question would be if they realised what they were doing, reflect on exactly why the tantrum is occurring. If he or she is in the throes of a tantrum then this reflection may only be possible for a split second. However, it should allow you to understand it more and thus make you a little bit more relaxed in the situation. Take the amount of frustration you are feeling and times it by ten.

That figure still won’t even come close to the amount of frustration that your elderly charge is feeling. Imagine being stuck in your body, having thoughts muddled to the point that you cannot think straight and then think whether you would be reacting in the same way as your relative is. If you were honest then the answer would be yes.

The method of reasoning above can help you cope to a certain extent, but then having the unreasonable behaviour directed towards you is a different matter and will provoke more potent feelings within you. If you take it as a personal attack then no amount of reasoning on your part will make it possible for you to cope. You have to somehow rise above it.

Taking regular breaks is one method, maybe getting away from the individual for a few moments. It could even be a cry for attention, so ignoring the unreasonable behaviour or pretending that it hasn’t affected you may just put an end to it for long enough for you to gather your thoughts.

Sometimes, regular unreasonable behaviour will only last for a short while. Elderly people suffering from metal and physical ailments have a tendency to go through phases, just as children do so it is just a matter of weathering the storm and/or finding a way to cope with it. There is no definitive way to cope because everybody is different.

The solution could be as obvious as listening to music through headphones for a while, or taking a short walk. Eventually, you will build up a resistance to it. Suddenly, you will find that a mental shutter comes down when the person that you are caring for begins to act unreasonably.

You will begin to recognise the signs that a tantrum is brewing and simply ignore it or head it off before it begins. All of this takes time and it doesn’t happen overnight.

You have to figure out what works best for you. If it helps, take the attitude that he or she is a child again.

That is essentially what they are and dealing with a child is not so alien to some as dealing with an adult is. If you can get into this mentality then it will seem so much easier to cope with unreasonable elderly behaviour.

Great senior citizens truths:

Great Truths That Little Children Have Learned:

1. No matter how hard you try, you can't baptise cats.
2. When your Mum is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3. If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4. Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5. You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
6. Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7. Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8. You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9. Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10. The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap. (My favorite!)

Great Truths That Adults Have Learned:

1. Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2. Wrinkles don't hurt.
3. Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
4. Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
5. Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
6. Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fibre, not the toy.

Great Truths About Growing Old:

1. Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
2. Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3. When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.
4. You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5. It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6. Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.
7. Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

Great truths about the Four Stages Of Life:

1. You believe in Santa Claus.
2. You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3. You are Santa Claus.
4. You look like Santa Claus.

Great truths about success... and The Wheel of Life

1. At age 4 success is . . . . not piddling in your pants.
2. At age 12 success is . . . having friends.
3. At age 17 success is . . . having a drivers licence.
4. At age 35 success is . . . having money.
5. At age 50 success is . . . having money.
6. At age 70 success is . . . having a drivers licence.
7. At age 75 success is . . . having friends.
8. At age 80 success is . . . not piddling in your pants.

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