Videos to Illuminate, Inspire, and Inform Life with Dementia

For World Alzheimer’s Month, The Caregiver’s Voice features four videos. One is a touching piece from Japan about people with dementia engaged in purposeful and joyful frontline work as servers in a restaurant. Another features Dr. Kerry Burnight’s caregiver communication tips. The third, is a touching song for people with younger-onset Alzheimer’s. Finally, a trailer of a soon-to-be-released documentary: Keys Bags Names Words. Click on each of the title links.

The Restaurant with Mistaken Orders

In Tokyo, Japan there is a restaurant where the servers have dementia and/or other cognitive impairment that makes it difficult for them to remember. They fill some orders incorrectly; yet, the customers are happy. The servers feel purposefully engaged in meaningful tasks.

How is this possible?

This uplifting power of humanity is reality after Shiro Oguni actualized his vision to encourage interaction with people with dementia. Regardless of our ability, we all want to feel we are contributing meaningfully. This is more surprising in Japan because culturally, saving face and shame are profound. “In Japan, the concept of the “face” is much more far-reaching, since one’s “face” represents the social identity without which one cannot stand in front of other people.”

So, while a server struggles to twist a large pepper mill, not entirely sure where the pepper will fall, customers at the table help guide the pepper mill. “We did it!” they cry out and join in the laughter. “The restaurant is not about whether orders are executed incorrectly or not,” emphasizes Oguni. “The important thing is the interaction with people who have dementia.”

If the embedded video above does not play, please click on Restaurant of Mistaken Orders.

For another perspective view Neal Foard’s <2-minute video.

We need to create more opportunities for people with dementia to interact meaningfully while living purposeful lives with joy. Helping the community be familiar with people with dementia fosters understanding, which reduces the stigma. I know my father would have enjoyed helping.

Thank you, Kirk Bresee, for sharing this.

3 Things NOT to Say to Someone with Dementia

In less than one minute, Dr. Kerry Burnight gives us 3 Things NOT to Say to a Person with Dementia and what to say instead. One of the three is asking, “Do you remember when…?” Instead, say, “I remember when….”

You may need to be signed into LinkedIn to access Dr. Kerry Burnight’s profile.

I’m Looking in The Mirror

Music is an integral part of our lives. Research shows how music has the power to enliven people living with dementia. Here is a tribute piece written by Bakhus Saba for people with Younger Onset Dementia and sung by Sarah Smith.

Keys Bags Names Words

Finally, a new documentary film about hope in aging and dementia is being screened around the world.

Depending on who you ask, people fear a diagnosis of dementia more than death. This documentary shifts the fear and hopelessness to one of informed hope and action. There are things we can do as individuals to reduce our risk of developing dementia. There are ways to connect meaningfully with our loved ones, even if they no longer recognize us. We can live an even higher quality of life after diagnosis.

View the embedded two-minute trailer.

If the embedded video does not play, please click on Keys Bags Names Words Trailer.