Why Some Dementia Activities Don't Work (And What Helps)

0:00Careblazers, I am so excited to welcome a special guest with us today, Ju Tu, and you are going to get an amazing story about somebody who saw a challenge in the dementia space and the cognitive impairment space, and she created the most amazing products to literally enrich the lives of people with cognitive impairment. You can't even tell what this is yet, but some of these things, there may not only totally beautiful, but it's really inspired by science and understanding how the brain of somebody with dementia works. So if you're caring for somebody and you are thinking like, what do I do to keep them engaged, enriched?

0:41It feels like the activities I have don't really quite meet them where they are at. That's what we're going to be talking about today. 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. All right, let's get back to today's podcast. And so Ju, I just want to welcome you. Why do you think busy caregivers should be tuning in to listen to our discussion today? Thank you so much, Natalie, for having me on the show.

1:16So the biggest why for why you should tuning in is I deeply understand the frustration as a granddaughter caring for my grandparents. I've seen firsthand how my healthy grandmother was hospitalized as a result of the stress caring for my grandpa, who has been a people leader and a vibrant retirement performer. So seeing that stress firsthand enabled me to have a deep understanding of the caregiver stress day in and day out. From there, I work with the best institution in our nation, Center for Applied Research, to understand how the brain works, how we should integrate a multi-service inspired design in the products that actually work to enable greater independence, joy, and connection in day-to-day care.

2:08So less stress for caregivers and more enjoyable conversation and relationship family dynamics. Yes, I love that. Thank you, Ju. So you mentioned a word just there, and I see it on the back of your products too. And it says, inspired by Montessori principles. Can you just explain for people who might not understand what Montessori means? Like why it's so important when we're talking about activities here? So when we heard about Montessori, the first, you know, image, a pop-up is probably in the early childhood in Montessori preschool, where you have things clearly labeled, and people are encouraged to explore activities on their own.

2:51Children have a sense of agency. They can explore an activity depending on their ability level. It can be customized from easy to hard, depending on their preferences. And then also there's a variety of things for them to choose from, and it was never a set schedule they have to follow. So transferring the same concept into dementia care is how can we enable the person to have a sense of agency and purpose in their day-to-day life. A lot of people living with dementia are seniors who carry a whole life of wisdom from their career, from family duties, from military, all throughout their life. But now because of the brain changes, they may be very limited to what they can do.

3:39So it's important to let them feel fulfilled while doing the things adapted to their remaining ability levels. Yeah, I love this. So many things about it. I feel like one of the main reasons a lot of people with dementia might exhibit behaviors like the way that we see them like Like agitation, yelling, frustration, even maybe a little bit what people might describe as combativeness or defiance is really what you're getting at is this loss of agency. You have somebody who's been independent their whole life and now they have this condition and slowly but surely everything is being taken away. And not everybody wants to fold towels or not everybody wants to play bingo.

4:25And so like we're trying to sometimes, not all the times, we try to get them to do this one thing. But this Montessori approach is like we have a range of things that they can do regardless of their ability level. And we kind of meet them where they're at to help give them a sense of agency. I think that's a beautiful fit in the dementia care space. So I want to talk in a moment just about like all kinds of the different products you have and how that might enrich somebody's life who has cognitive impairment or just an older adult. But I want to read this quote that's on your box because I think it's beautiful and it like ties into what we're talking about.

5:03It says, every step toward comfort, independence, and confidence is a powerful act of care. And I think that's kind of what we're talking about here. So I think that's beautiful. You have on all of your materials here, like the main benefit. I know you can't see Care Blazers through this video. I'll promise to share more and other more clear videos, but the main benefit is to promote independence. So can you just talk us through some of the things that you have created because of this beautiful personal story, watching your grandmother care for your grandfather? Like what did you create and how is this supposed to help promote independence?

5:41Yeah, definitely. Caregiving is hard. If the problem statement is caregiving is hard, then I would look at what are some of the underlying factors that make it hard. The first and foremost is the person no longer do daily routines or making decisions safely and independently. And as a result of this very first foremost problem, caregiver or care partner have to step in and do more and more and more over time on top of the million things they're handling on their own or for other family member. And the second step is where does a person spend the most time in their daily life? It's usually the home.

6:26When they navigate the environment, there's a lot of confusion. All the doors look the same. All the drawer look the same, even if they have the remaining physical ability to maneuver around the home or read, they will still lack understanding of their environment, even if it's a most familiar home. So it's really important to create a cognitively accessible home environment so the person can navigate a home with clarity and confidence so they can initiate some of the daily routines on their own safely, or retrieving a plate and utensil on their own, help washing the dishes, returning it back in the same place.

7:07If the person can do all of that, that's already taken a lot of the stress off the primary care partner. I love that. So of what you've created, like how does that literally make a home cognitively accessible? Yeah, great question. So we have the familiar space product line is created to support that cognitive accessibility. We have both room size and home and routine labels. The room size is a set of 22 high quality made door size that you can put throughout the hall to indicate the area, like what space is this, or where you can find the space by using the arrow stickers. And as an example is think about a long hallway with five exactly the same white door, right?

7:58The person is understandable that they will get confused. All the doors look in the same, but with a door sign, it gives the person clear understanding of what that room is for without feeling embarrassed. And they can just, you know, go into their bedroom, go into the bathroom. then you can navigate this space with confidence without feeling disoriented or confused. So that is the door size. In addition, a lot of our time is spent in a kitchen or in our closet bathroom, right? But just imagine, you know, a typical US kitchen full of cabinet doors, doors, cupboards, right? it's very confused for someone living with memory loss to just remember what is behind each of the door.

8:49So we also created the home and routine label, which is a very comprehensive 32 sheets of label consisting of both everyday item, as well as the step-by-step breakdown of the daily routines. An example would be the stickers for utensil, place, bowls, snacks, cereal, rice, or closet items like lumber garments, socks, jackets, pens. On the daily routine procedure label side, it is how can I brush a teeth? What are the steps of brushing teeth? What are the steps of operating a washer, dryer, folding laundry. For a lot of people who age in place, they may or may not have someone who live with them every day.

9:38Having some of the label can not only allow them to do the things on their own, but also it's safer. I love it. And it's just a reminder that for us, there's a lot we can take for granted when our brains are working all right. Like we know where the kitchen plates are and where the cups are and the silverware and where we keep extra towels. But for somebody who has even lived in the same home for decades, as dementia starts to progress, their home can become a strange place and it's hard for them to know where things are. And I like to talk a lot about dementia does impact physical as well as cognitive.

10:18But for somebody who still has a lot of their physical abilities, these labels, these signs, they help the cognitive piece so that they can help continue to promote their independence. I love that. I think it's a good lesson overall for any Careblazer listening. Like you could try some signs right now. You can try to see if that helps promote independence right now, putting some signs up. But you also have some products that are engaging, like this puzzle. I'm really curious about because I've seen dementia puzzles before. Yours is actually really special. I've never seen anything like this. I'm wondering if you can talk through the evidence base about why this puzzle, the way you've created it, would work for somebody with dementia compared to other puzzles we might see.

11:06Yeah, definitely. So I've tried a lot. I've also been to a lot of senior living communities and see firsthand how people are using the existing puzzles on the market. Before I talk about the difference, I also want to talk about what are the features are extremely important in making it a dementia-friendly product. First, I want to say is having visual support, having visual reference is extremely successful. And even for regular adults competing in a world puzzle championship. The first thing I noticed, they always have the front, the reference image at a front. However, in a traditional puzzle, it's always pieces in a box and the cover can have a lot of conflicting information.

11:55The brand name, the glossy cover, all of that, that make it really hard for the senior may or may not have visual impairment to see clearly the reference image. That was number one. Having visual reference at an ergonomic and comfortable angle without any reflection is going to help them with sustained focus. The second one is non-infantizing, non-child-like features. And a lot of seniors are actually opposed to toddler-like features around their living environment. So dignified, preserving, and And add out appropriate image is also really important. And the third thing I noticed when I bring the puzzle to my grandma is I realized that I need to explain it to her how to set it up properly for my grandpa.

12:45So from the time she brought a box from the closet to setting up on the table, explaining to my grandpa, and he may or may not want to enjoy it, that was already like a 10-minute process for her. and the end result might be a frustrated grandma. So in my design, I really wanted to have something that is readily available on the table, elevate a home visual and can be set up in under five seconds if that's possible. And it's two in one, which is pretty cool. But when you're talking about the visual reference, like to make sure, so this is the actual puzzle. I wonder if I could pop out a piece or something right now.

13:24I don't know, I have to. But like, this is the puzzle pieces that come out, right? But the whole time they can reference up here, which is really cool. So and then with the two in one is like this, which I love it. Do you have others or is this like the main puzzle that you have? Yeah, we launched in February this year. So we're quite new on the market. This is the first version that we just launched. Definitely hoping to create more. And we do have a lot of inquiries to say, hey, can we have other images? When we were at a memory care community, the residents there loved it. And they voted the dogs and cats to be the next.

14:09Oh, I like that. Yeah. So we do have plans to have more puzzle image variation as well as piece variation. Yeah. Maybe six piece or more, like 24 pieces. Yeah. So we can cater to a range of ability levels. Yes, I love that. What is your ultimate goal and dream here with Ageless? So I think there are a few things I'm thinking that motivates me personally, and also making the world a better place. First is I wanted to help caregivers become the best care partner they can be. This starts with having physical tools and solution that they can easily use in their daily care that help them reduce stress and enable their loved one to live a fuller lives.

15:02I love that. How about like a way that family caregivers right now could start to implement a little bit of Montessori into their life right now, or maybe even make their home a little more cognitively accessible right now. Let's say they don't have this beautiful ageless stuff that I have access to right now. How would they make their home more cognitively accessible or incorporate more Montessori-like activities? So something I would say that really helped out is this is a site that we created. It's a table tent style using the cupboard. I would encourage every family member, care partner, or professional care partner, create this.

15:42You know, so on the one side, you could say, please help sort socks or play. Please enjoy the puzzle. Please drink some water with an icon. Every signage always come with an icon to help them understand it more intuitively. And then on the other side, you would list out the steps of how you would do the activity. In my experiences, never take it for granted that they will understand, okay, the socks in front of them, they are supposed to be, you know, folding. Or the puzzle is in front of them, how they can just do a puzzle. Always include the step-by-step information in here, and then along with the icon of how you would do the activities.

16:29So by providing the visual breakdown, it makes it so much easier for the person to, you know, follow without feeling embarrassed. We have success in the memory care communities where the staff always rely on a verbal prompting to say, hey, come do this. And this is how you would do that. Imagine using this, no longer verbal queuing, so better quality of life for the caregiver. And for the person, it's also coming back to the original concept of sense of agency. Now, I don't need to ask for permission. I don't need to be helped by someone. I can read this. If I can no longer read, I can understand the icon so I can follow.

17:12I can start the activity on my own terms without feeling embarrassed. And that is really the success to having a meaningful engagement. I love that. That's beautiful. And I also love this idea of maybe some of the signs, they can just be there. Like, what did yours say? Please enjoy a puzzle. like you could put that on the dining room table with some puzzles and it can just be a visual cue for them maybe to sit down and enjoy sometimes by like the directness of like here's a puzzle do a puzzle now or do you want to do a puzzle it's easy for them to default no I don't want to but when it's just there as an offer and there's this visual cue and sign to say okay maybe I will it's not coming directly from the caregiver that maybe they're feeling like you know they're struggling to have a sense of independence, this can feel like their own idea.

18:07And you can make, I know yours, your branding and materials are so high quality, but you can make this with a piece of paper, right? You don't need any special printer. You don't need any special equipment, just a piece of paper, maybe some markers and you're good to go. That's true. Yes. Add some color to the top and bottom. So he stands out from the environment and you're good to go. Like you that. Yeah. And I love it. And not to give up if it doesn't seem to like stick or work the first time. There might be, maybe you can speak to this Jew about like maybe the placement, where it's at, how it's presented.

18:44Like any of those things can make a big shift in how the person receives it. Definitely. In a few memory care communities, the activity director placed this sign along with a puzzle in the high traffic area and she was so surprised to find out residents just spontaneously came up to it explored it and then working on it independently or with their fellow residents something she has never seen before so eye placement matters a lot you want to make sure that is eye level and you can also adjust you know the height or the placement depending on your your loved one's mobility or their eye levels. And so again, what I really like about what you're teaching and what you're providing and what you've created is none of these things are things we haven't necessarily heard of before, but you are presenting it with this beautiful scientific angle of this is how it's done from an aspect of understanding how the brain works and understanding how dementia works.

19:49Then you've taken what we've heard, puzzles are great. And then you've made it based on the science for dementia specific, for cognitive impairment specific. Here's how to make it at visual eye level. Here's how to make it with minimal aggravation or hiccups, right? Like we have to make this as smooth as possible for them. And so the intention behind what you've created is really apparent. And I think it's fantastic. Thank you so much. I spent about a year volunteering at a local Seattle adult day center called Elderwise. And I've seen firsthand how people living with dementia still have a lot of creativity.

20:27They want to be loved. They can still make a lot of meaningful contributions to the groups, to the community, if the opportunity is offered. There needs to be accommodation in the environmental cues, in how we speak to them, and how we present the visual support to enable them to do that. But it's doable. Once you unlock that, I've seen people are so creative. They can sing songs better than I do. They can create better art than I do. So what I want to create is just an unlock enabler to continue to allow them to have a fulfilling and delightful life. So this is why I think Ageless is very different from just being larger pieces puzzle.

21:16No, we're not that. And we're not just any labels. Our labels are proven to be very helpful in everyday environment. Not only that, we're using the most highest quality jelly materials so that you can use it, even if the environment changes from home to skilled nursing to a memory care, even in the rehab hospital that the signs can travel with them so the person do have that sense of continuity and familiarity with a changing environment that i can attest to care blazers i know you can't feel what i am feeling but this is like the highest quality so i do like what you're saying like if they let's say they're moving from home and they're moving to an assisted living or moving to memory care or they're just hospitalized you can take the signs that make sense and move it with them.

22:08So then there's that familiarity there. And what I do notice a lot, like I mentioned, is just very intentional, is that you've done the work of really witnessing and understanding, spending a year in memory care just to volunteer and observe and see how things are going, I think has really come through in the products you've created as well. So I agree with you. It's not just another puzzle or another sign. Ju, is this stuff available to anybody now? How can people find these products? Yeah, I know you will link Ageless website in the comment. But for those of you who haven't heard us, we spell as A-E-G-E-L-I-S-S, which is different from the conventional spelling of the word Ageless.

22:57And the reason behind that is I wanted aging to feel like there can be multiple forms. It doesn't have to be a conventional or a certain way of aging. So that is what ageless is spelled very differently. A-E-G-E-L-I-S-S. And you can find all of our beautiful products and tools on our website. I love that. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for telling your story. A little bit of a personal question, if you're comfortable answering, Is your grandfather still alive? Yeah, yeah, he is. We FaceTime once every one to two weeks. I always like to do this when I take my grandkids, my kids to the playground.

23:37So he's been able to benefit from your creation. Oh, he loved the puzzle. He loved the puzzle. And the visual aids, even though like my first version is in English, he's able to understand because of the icon. Yeah. I love the icon is really what is making a huge difference. Yeah, and so much time in the product development phase. But now seeing him just effortlessly, you know, going to the kitchen and do his things on his own, relying on the icon to tell him what is behind the door cabin is really fulfilling for me. I love that. I love it. Just so everybody knows, I am not somebody and you You probably know this, Jew, if you've been watching the channel at all.

24:23I'm not somebody that talks a lot about products or brings products on. And I should let everybody know this is not an advertisement. Jew has not paid me money to come on. Like this, we met in person at the Association for Frontal Temporal Degeneration Conference in Seattle in May this year, right? And we started chatting and you were telling me about this product. And I just thought, oh, this sounds, it's a beautiful story coming from an immense need backed by a lot of research. And happens to be very beautifully made. So I just wanted to share the story of somebody doing amazing, amazing things for the cognitively impaired community.

25:01And I hope that more people will hear about this too. I can't wait to see where Ageless goes. Thank you so much. We are just starting in February this year. So we're quite young, quite new to the market. Your love and support is what can keep Ageless going. and then creating more, you know, variation of puzzle, variation of other engagement activities, other language variation of the visual support. So the non-English speaker can also benefit from it. The sky is the limit. I'm really energized by the impact we have made so far. One of the most heartfelt moments was when I asked a family care partner to share a testimonial with me.

25:46But instead, her husband, who lived with mid-stage dementia, wrote a very, very long email to me instead, thanking me for allowing him to help his wife in the kitchen again. So those moments really stayed with me. And it's something I feel like when I don't know where this is going, those moments really give me the light and energy to keep it going. So thank you so much for having me on the show. You're welcome, Ju. Thank you for being here. Thank you for what you've created. Yeah.