The Role of a Memory Care Community

For a person with middle-to late-stage Alzheimer’s who suffers from hallucinations and dementia, the best caregiving solution may the services of a memory care community such as Primrose. Memory care communities provide an assisted living environment that has the staff and setup to protect and care for your loved one and provide them with the daily assistance they need. Memory care communities also offer opportunities for important social interactions as well as engagement and stimuli from many different types of therapies shown to help reduce anxiety and improve mood, such as art and music therapy, group reminiscence therapy, and even pet therapy.

Benefits of Engagement in Social Interactions

Recent studies such as the work from Jiska Cohen-Mansfield and colleagues has shown that social interaction in memory care communities, either involving conversation or visits from friends or family members toting a newborn or a small pet can provide the most stimulating and engaging activities for persons with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Social interaction has the power to confer a positive mood and engage adults for significant periods of time. Meeting the social needs of people with Alzheimer’s or dementia is a high priority at Primrose to help our residents live well with dementia and to improve and reduce behavioral symptoms of these diseases such as agitation, restlessness, and aggression. Jiska Cohen-Mansfield’s work also suggests that work-like activities may provide another opportunity to engage people with dementia and reduce feelings of isolation and distress, which can be considered as an addition to, rather than as an alternative to, social interaction.

Primrose staff have seen first-hand that engaging their residents in meaningful activities that involve social interaction helps with their care considerably. Many programs and activities have been developed to enable social interaction as part of daily care at Primrose, in simple, structured ways, and these activities offer many benefits to Primrose residents dealing with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Contact us if you have questions about the activities and programs we offer, including our Adult Day Care programs, which can provide much-needed respite for caregivers.