SWAMPSCOTT — The town is working on several programs to help residents dealing with memory loss, with the goal of making the area a more “dementia-friendly” community.
Members of the Senior Center, Swampscott for All Ages Committee and Council on Aging formed a Dementia-Friendly Committee just before the COVID-19 pandemic. While they had to take a step back during the pandemic, Director of Elder Services Heidi Whear said that they began a weekly Zoom-based caregiver support group, keeping a small community together through quarantine.
“It can be very taxing for someone who is caring for someone, especially by themselves,” Whear said. “For example, if you had been contemplating having your mother or a loved one go into a nursing home, all of a sudden you’re realizing you might never see them again because people were not being allowed in nursing homes.”
The senior center also offers take-home memory kits, which include a movie, activity and other materials on a certain theme for caregivers to use with their loved ones. One of the kits is ocean themed, with seashells, a catalog of different types of shells and a copy of the movie “Old Man and the Sea;” others are themed around gardening, tools, transportation, colors and even Massachusetts, complete with Fluffernutter memorabilia.
“It allows the caregiver an activity they can try out with their loved ones to see if it fits them,” Whear said. “They have a bunch of different things to attract at different levels or stages of dementia.”
Now that they are able to have some in-person gatherings again, the Senior Center hosts a monthly “memory cafe,” an event with activities meant to help participants reminisce and enjoy themselves in a safe, judgment-free environment.
Whear explained that each event in Swampscott has a different theme: On Tuesday afternoon, the monthly memory cafe will be ice cream-themed, with vintage photos, ice cream sundaes and ice cream-related art projects. Last month, the event was amusement park-themed.
“(It’s) failure-free. There’s no wrong answer,” Whear said, explaining that the activities are meant to encourage the memories that participants have. “‘Do you remember this? Did you like that popcorn?’ Just remembering the cotton candy and what that used to smell like, and riding the ferris wheel and the butterflies in your belly.”
Often, Whear said, caregivers may be nervous bringing their loved ones out, for worry that they might get confused or make a mistake that might upset someone else.
“It gives the person an activity to do and a place where you can take your loved one and know that they won’t make any mistakes,” she said of the memory cafe. “They know by coming to the memory cafe, everybody in the room understands.”
To improve things outside of the memory cafe, however, Whear said that the committee has started offering “dementia friend” training for town employees to help them interact appropriately with people with dementia. The ultimate goal, she said, is to one day offer a dementia-friendly business certification so that local stores and restaurants can take similar training sessions and let customers know that they are ready to accommodate their needs.
“If we create this dementia-friendly business, we give you some kind of seal on the door, and you, as a business, know how to handle that person coming in,” she said. “Then someone who is a caregiver feels confident bringing their loved one to that space.”
