This Dementia Tool Helps When You're Not There

0:00Dementia Careblazers Host: Careblazer, how many times a day do you answer some version of what are we doing today? Who's coming over today? When are you coming back? What are we having for dinner? For some of you, it can feel like you are constantly reminding, updating, leaving notes, making phone calls, and trying to help your loved one keep track of what is happening. Careblazer, real quick, if you learn better by watching things, then you can hop on over to my YouTube channel where I post these podcasts in video format, sometimes have different visuals to help people learn even better. You can just type in Careblazers into YouTube and I will pop up.

0:40Dementia Careblazers Host: All right, let's get back to today's podcast. And that's exactly what made the memory board stand out to me. It is a simple display where you can update it remotely from wherever you are. and you can have it say whatever you want it to say. You can leave short messages. You can leave photos. You can leave important information they're always asking about. And I've personally used it and it is so simple. It is so easy to use. Your loved one doesn't need to know any tech and you really don't either. I absolutely loved it and I want to share it with you. So I invited the founder, Tyler Zanini, because I wanted you to see how it actually works, who it's helpful for, and why he created it after his own grandmother was diagnosed with dementia.

1:27Dementia Careblazers Host: And Tyler gave us a discount code, which I will share in the video and in the description below. But just so you know, when you use that code, I may actually get some sort of small percentage when you use that link. So how about we move to Tyler. Tyler, tell us how this all started.

1:44Tyler Zannini: First off, thank you so much for having me and allowing me to kind of come on and share my story and the thousands and tens of thousands of stories that we hear from families using the memory board. But yeah, maybe to start, I'll just kind of share my personal experience. And it was really kind of based on my personal caregiving journey. In my case, it was my grandmother who about five years ago was diagnosed with vascular dementia. And as the years went by, it became harder and harder to communicate with her, keep in touch, let her know what was going on with the rest of the family, help her manage her day a little bit better.

2:18Tyler Zannini: And we thought, hey, there needs to be a super simple way that is truly no tech burden for your loved one, truly no apps and no batteries and no charging and no buttons that they truly didn't need to manage themselves. And that's really how the memory board came to be. It really started from our personal family experience. We wanted something like this for ourselves. And we come to find out that a lot of families were looking for something like this. And we hear from families all the time that have been like, I've been looking for this for years. And now today we get stories every single day about how memory board is helping, helping their families stay connected, helping their loved ones not feel so lonely, helping their loved ones attend more events and activities because the updates are kind of coming on the memory board.

3:00Tyler Zannini: So it's really been an amazing journey. And it's just been amazing to see how many families have benefited from the memory board.

3:06Dementia Careblazers Host: I love that. So this was sparked from a personal caregiving story with your grandmother. Heather, can you just take a few minutes to talk about like, well, what exactly is the memory board? Like what does it do? How are people using it?

3:21Tyler Zannini: Yes. So at its core, memory board is about simplicity and ease of use. And that's kind of at the core of everything we do. So memory board is a simple digital display. You set it up in your loved one's home, always plugged into power, always connected to Wi-Fi. And then from there, your loved one only needs to look at it throughout the day. caregivers, family members, friends, care coordinators, they would have the memory board app on their phone. And from the app, they can send messages, reminders, updates, check-ins, funny messages, funny photos from anywhere throughout the day. So I think that's what kind of people really, really love.

3:59Tyler Zannini: Whether you're 10, 15 minute car ride away, or you're on the other side of the world, you can kind of participate and share updates, you know, so that your loved when it feels a little bit more connected and a little bit more supported. And then for the caregiver, that was one of the things that we didn't appreciate when we kind of first started Memory Board was just how helpful it's been for the caregiver, where they're no longer dealing with 10 to 15 phone calls a day saying, you know, hey, what's happening next? When are you coming to pick me up? And that gives and allows for more time and space for more meaningful conversations and connection, which we really like to see.

4:34Tyler Zannini: But as I said, simplicity is kind of at the core of everything we do. So from the app, you have kind of full ability to schedule. You can kind of turn things on and off very easily. You can fully control the board remotely. So that's like adjusting sleep mode when the board goes to sleep or changing the brightness or the volume. If your mom or dad calls you and tells you it's too bright or it's too loud, making it super simple so that your loved one truly doesn't need to do anything.

4:57Dementia Careblazers Host: I love that. Can you share maybe a couple of stories about how practically a real life family has used the memory board and how they used it.

5:07Tyler Zannini: Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, one of the best kind of parts of what we're doing, and, you know, we truly feel grateful that we're able to support and be a small part of family's caregiving journey is just the stories that we hear kind of every single day. So I think it ranges from, you know, the very practical to the more fun, silly, you know, more emotional kind of type stories. But one of the things that we love hearing is that for your loved one, they're attending more events because you're able to put that information up on the memory board. And for a lot of people, you know, the primary caregiver, maybe it's the son or the daughter lives 10 or 15 minutes away, but that's still a lot if you're asking them to kind of come and drive over every single day.

5:47Tyler Zannini: Maybe previously they were updating a whiteboard or updating a sticky note. So now with the memory board, what we hear a lot of families do is they'll take the, you know, paper agenda that the senior living community kind of gives out at the start of each week. And they'll basically upload a bunch of that information onto the memory board. And so now families tell us like, yeah, my mom is attending more events. And there was a family a couple of weeks ago who shared a story about how she put on the memory board that there was a, like a band, a concert kind of in the, in the community center. And because of that, the mom like knew about it, was able to go downstairs.

6:22Tyler Zannini: and then she got called up to like perform and be part of the band and how happy she was that she knew about it because the information was on the memory board so it's stories like that that we really really love to hear but even last week I think we heard a story where it was a daughter reached out to us and her parents are both using the memory board and what she said to us she said yeah my parents tell me that they don't argue as much because they're not you know arguing about the schedule or what's happening next because the information is on the memory board. And I think she was kind of half joking when she was kind of telling us that story.

6:55Tyler Zannini: But it's kind of things like that where the memory board just provides that reminder, that reminiscent, that kind of sense of connection. And it's also a little bit of an intermediary where it's kind of on the board. Your son or daughter is not telling you what to do or how to do something. It kind of provides a little bit of a barrier.

7:12Dementia Careblazers Host: Yeah, I love that actually. It's nice that it's a visual reminder and it's not constantly somebody calling to remind or the spouse reminding or the adult child calling to say, remember, mom, we have an appointment, you know, she's got a nice natural way to do it. And what I love about it as well is it kind of reminds me of the popular digital photo frames that they maybe have already seen, or it's in other homes. It's not like a very clear medical device. It's like, this is actually kind of, it looks nice. It could just be part of decor. So I'm wondering, we've talked about how the memory board is great for here's what's coming up.

7:50Dementia Careblazers Host: Here's your schedule, maybe an upcoming appointment. Are there any other use cases that family members have used it for that you have any stories to share in that regard? Yeah, absolutely. And we do lean into the communication aspect.

8:03Tyler Zannini: And really the goal with memory board is that it is an ongoing kind of tool for daily communication. And it's kind of changing multiple times a day. But you still can do photos like a digital photo frame. But when you're doing photos, you can add a message to kind of provide additional context and additional information. So people have used photos in a really interesting way, where, for example, let's say somebody is coming by that day. Well, you know, your loved one with memory loss, maybe they remember who that person is, or they're unsure. So we've had families tell us, they say, yeah, when a guest is coming by, you know, at the beginning of the day, we'll put up that person's photo and then we'll add a little bit of context like, hey, this is so and so, you know, you've known each other for this long and here's a nice photo of you two together.

8:48Tyler Zannini: So that when that person comes by, they're a little bit less anxious and a little bit more familiar with who's coming by that day. So we see that quite a bit. And then just to the emotional, more kind of connection piece of it, people are using photos to basically be more of a check-in of kind of what's going on in kind of the day-to-day throughout the family. So we hear, I mean, we're kind of recording mid-August, it's kind of summertime. A lot of people are going on vacation and they say, hey, I love that I can send updates from my vacation to my mom or dad through the memory board. It makes her, you know, him or her feel like they're a little bit there with us in person and they kind of know what's going on.

9:25Tyler Zannini: So that's been kind of really cool to see. Even within my own family, we're using it, you know, a couple of brothers, sisters, my parents, we use that as a mini Facebook. My mom is just not good with a smartphone. So she loves getting something on the memory board and then she'll text us. Oh, you know, your daughter is so cute. And so it's kind of being used that way.

9:41Dementia Careblazers Host: I love that. That's really cool. Now there's a volume feature on it. What's that for?

9:46Tyler Zannini: The board does chime when there is a new message that plays to kind of draw attention. So your loved one kind of knows to look that there is something new. But we're working very hard to be able to read out the message out loud. And that's probably one of the most requested things that we hear. As you can imagine, you know, low vision, macular degeneration. But just like if you're not in front of the board, when a new message appears, having it read out would be really, really beneficial. So it is one of the most requested things that we hear. And we're working really hard to enable that. And I think certainly by before the end of this year, and hopefully much sooner, we'll make that available.

10:22Tyler Zannini: And the benefit is everybody who has a memory board kind of gets all these new features through software updates. So it's not like you're missing out and we're kind of constantly releasing new stuff.

10:31Dementia Careblazers Host: I love that. And I just want to say how simple and easy that app actually is to use. Now, this is for like the caregiver, the, you know, whoever's involved in the care, like on their side, whoever wants to manipulate and put something on the board, they have access to this app. And it was just really easy to change a message, you know, like, hey, I'll be back in 10 minutes, or I ran to the store, I'll be home soon. Or, you know, we're having spaghetti. It was just, you could just change it. If you know how to text, you could use this app. So I thought it's really neat.

11:02Tyler Zannini: Yeah, exactly right. And that's the key thing is simple, simple, simple. And it's a hard balance because we want to add more features and more functionality. And people have reached out to us and they're like, the app is perfect. Please don't change anything. And then I'm like, thank you. I really appreciate it. But we want to add like these couple of things. And they're like, please don't do that. So you got to find the balance between just keeping it super simple while we make it better and kind of do things that can better support caregivers and how they do their work.

11:29Dementia Careblazers Host: Yeah, it's really simple. Like I see that there is a fun, loving connection piece to the board with sharing photos, sharing jokes, saying what's coming up in the day, things like that. But I can also see like, if there were challenges a family member would be working through, like for instance, maybe they're trying to get their loved one on a toileting schedule, but they don't want to constantly be reminding their loved one, like, Hey, it's time to use the toilet. Like it could something like it. And it's, you can change the message in like seconds. So like the day, and you can even put a photo of the bathroom or of the toilet or of the time.

12:05Dementia Careblazers Host: And so there's just so many cool, unique ways I think that you could use something like this. I am wondering from your experience and feedback you've received from family members, is there like a certain level of severity where it wouldn't really be a good use for the person with dementia?

12:23Tyler Zannini: We've been pleasantly surprised just the range of people who have benefited and could benefit from the memory board. I heard a story from a family a couple of weeks ago, where they said, yeah, we bought the memory board. We didn't really know if it was going to work or kind of be helpful. We didn't think our loved one could really read anymore. And then, you know, within a couple of days or a week, the loved one basically in the morning was like, hey, like, what's the schedule today? You didn't put it on the board. Like, where's the, you know, where's the daily schedule? And the caregiver was like, oh, I didn't know that you could, you know, you could, you were reading that or you could see that.

12:56Tyler Zannini: And he's like, yeah, yeah. You know, what's on the board? Like, what's the schedule? So, you know, we've seen these cases where even, you know, people more advanced could actually benefit from the memory board. Now that's not, there is, there is a degree to which it won't be beneficial. And, you know, we hear from folks all the time who said, yeah, I gave it a try and, you know, it's just not helpful for my family and we'll help them with a return, you know, no questions asked, but the goal is give it a try and, you know, see if it works for your family.

13:21Dementia Careblazers Host: Okay. Yes. I love that. So let's talk a little bit about that. Like practically. How do people find this, buy it? How can they feel comfortable, you know, trying something like this?

13:33Tyler Zannini: Yeah, absolutely. We, from our website, memoryboard.com, we are also on Amazon. I know people love it. Amazon just, they make it super easy for returns and ordering and all that sort of stuff. So we have a lot of people who buy on Amazon just because Amazon makes it so easy. We have an active Instagram and YouTube as well that has a bunch of videos and tutorials and stories from families. You're going to see what other families have said. You have visit our website and then you can reach out to us, hello at memoryboard.com. We have a very hands-on active team of folks always ready to answer any questions.

14:04Dementia Careblazers Host: Oh, I love that. Perfect. Okay. So Careblazers, memoryboard.com. We have a code for Careblazers specifically. So we'll put that in the description below. Tyler, I'm wondering if there's anything that you want to share about Memoryboard, about the story, the journey, anything at all that I haven't asked that you really want our audience to know?

14:25Tyler Zannini: Yeah, absolutely. I would say at the end of the day, I think what we see is that for a lot of caregivers, they've either tried a lot of tools or they kind of got burnt out by kind of different tools, kind of what works, kind of what doesn't work, or maybe they're kind of using the sticky note or the whiteboard. But I think what we see is like families, they'll give memory board a try and if it kind of helps them, they'll kind of stick around with it. And if not, they'll kind of let us know and kind of reach back out to us. And, you know, we maybe will kind of help and support them and kind of troubleshoot.

14:52Tyler Zannini: But I would say what's been amazing is just people reaching out, looking for help. And, you know, for those families that have been kind of benefited, it's been, it's been really amazing to just see how helpful it is and the stories that we get to hear.

15:04Dementia Careblazers Host: Yeah. I'm also thinking that there is a use case that has nothing to do with caregiving and dementia at some point, just like updating your spouse or partner or having like fun little memes or, you know, photos and jokes in it just to kind of knowing it. It's like, there is like, maybe after dementia caregiving journey is over, this isn't necessarily something that doesn't have a purpose.

15:26Tyler Zannini: Yeah. It's actually amazing. The, the other use cases that we've seen of people using it. And these are, these are families and groups reaching out to us. So we've had families with loved ones with autism, ADHD, Parkinson's, young kids with special needs, But I've even had, there's a kindergarten classroom in Utah and the teacher reached out and was like, oh, this could be beneficial for my kindergarten class. So we sent her a board and she's one of our power users. She uses it like eight to 10 times a day, sharing like a letter of the day, a word of the day. When is gym class? When are you going to go see your gym teacher?

16:01Tyler Zannini: So it's been amazing to kind of see all of these other use cases. And then to your point, we even had people who are in the executive functioning space say, oh, like I could really see a value of this. I think like any of us, like we're just going to inundate it all day with texts and notifications and pop ups in your calendar. And it's like, it's so much information. The memory board, it's really about what is the two to three important things that I need to know or think about today.

16:25Dementia Careblazers Host: Yeah. I love that. I just popped in my mind. I've been practicing a new language. I'm like, oh, what if I just put my new word of the day up? And every time, you know, it's not in my pocket. I don't have to carry it around. But it's like, when I see it there, it's like, oh, there's the new word of the day.

16:38Tyler Zannini: Exactly. It's there.

16:39Dementia Careblazers Host: So I have another, another use case. Another use case. But it just prompted a practical question. Are you able to schedule messages in advance so you don't have to do it in real time and remember, oh, this is, I need to put this in. Can you work ahead of time?

16:54Tyler Zannini: Yes. Yes, you have full ability to schedule. And so as far into the future as you would like. And then you can repeat things as well. So a lot of people will have like a weekly doctor's appointment or a weekly activity. You can kind of, you'll have that every single week. You only have to put it in once. And then if things change, because plans change, you're running a few minutes late, the schedule changes, you can kind of pop in at any point and change the time, change the message. You can hide the message. Let's say the doctor's appointment's not happening this week. You can kind of hide it this week and turn it back on the following week.

17:24Dementia Careblazers Host: Really neat. And is the app portion of it, is there an associated cost with keeping the app going?

17:31Tyler Zannini: No, there's not. So Memory Board is a true one-time purchase and no ongoing kind of subscription cost for the app.

17:37Dementia Careblazers Host: I love that. So cool. Now, Careblazers, for those of you watching, I think you know that I don't put things on my channel that I don't fully believe in or that I really don't think is a great product that can help. but also from a really great person or company that actually cares and wants to help. And I truly do believe that about Memory Board. So I hope you'll at least check it out. Careblazers, I would love to hear if any of you use this or if you're already using it, leave it below in a comment. With that being said, Tyler, thank you so much for just sharing your creation, for seeing a need of something that can really help improve the quality of lives of everybody involved in the process and for bringing it to life.

18:20Dementia Careblazers Host: I know it's not easy to bring a physical product into the world, so.

18:23Tyler Zannini: Yeah, well, I appreciate the opportunity to come on and share. And thank you so much for giving me the space.

18:28Dementia Careblazers Host: Yeah, awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks.