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by aaronwidd
3635 days ago
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A few weeks ago I went to a family gathering and brought along my Gear VR to demonstrate to my family. My mother, who is in her late 60's loved it immensely. I set her up with a street view app and dropped her in the little village she grew up in as a child. Someplace she hasn't been in years but talks about every day. Watching her swirl around and comment on her surroundings was really amusing. She overheated the Galaxy phone several times and couldn't get enough of it. My father is 84 years old and now living in a nursing home, where mom sits with him every day. He suffers from advanced Parkinson's, with increasingly bad dementia - lots of trouble parsing reality from fantasy, often mixing up TV shows with events in the real world. His life consists of nurses, wheelchairs, broadcast TV and a lot of sleep. He's miserable. Mom pleaded with me to let him use the VR headset. Even though I wanted to, I just couldn't take the risk of it having some negative effect. He barely understood digital technology when he was still sharp, so the jarring effects of seeing an error message, getting a broken visual or something would be highly alarming in his current frame of mind. Plus I couldn't guarantee he wouldn't get some sort of psychosis or motion sickness from using it with his illness. I really hope more research comes out about how VR affects the elderly, and people with dementia or other neurological disorders. Being bedridden in a hospital is the worst possible scenario for anyone and VR could be a godsend to people in this situation. |
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However, if you're not willing to go that route, there are some things you can do to help. My dad has been a nursing home administrator, my mom was an activity director, and I worked and volunteered in homes as a kid (and later worked for a company that sold media aimed at nursing home residents) - so I've seen what a great effect small things can have. A few things I would recommend:
-Old radio shows, especially the ones that still have the ads inserted between the shows. Spotify has some, and there are a lot of sites where old radio fans have gathered episodes or links to places to buy them.
-Music from your father's youth. Check out this non-profit for more information on the benefits of music for those with dementia. https://www.facebook.com/MusicAndMemory/
-Calm travel shows, old westerns if that's his thing, stuff like Lawrence Welk or I Love Lucy - a lot of older shows can wake up old memories, or just calm people down a little. We like the familiar things from better days. One of those kid-proof Kindles can be great for someone with shaky hands or the tendency to get upset and disoriented, but definitely do whatever you can to safeguard against theft. Many homes have trouble with that, sadly. It's really unfortunate that people who do such important work for our elderly after barely paid enough to get by, but that's another issue entirely.
-Screensaver-type DVDs (virtual fireplaces, gardens, snow scenes, waterfalls, etc.) - they can be very relaxing, especially the ones with decent sound effects.