i believe its Snohomish County that offers this program. Senior helping Seniors. These are seniors that volunteer to help other seniors. Studies suggest that this method of help is quite populat with seniors needing a little help.

Staying sharp or designating a family member that has knowledge and teaching ability with tech. Senior Centers are great too. There are new tech items appearing all the time and AI is also offering quit a bit in the future. Both Google and Microsft have AI areas specific for aging adults.

Another tactic that has been successful is to create a drivinf contract with your questionable driver. Agree on the things that would determine when driving needs to stop. Hartford Insurance Co has a great magazine on talking about driving.

As for driving, that is always a stresser for families. My experienxe is it ends up being super easy for some families or super difficult than expected. My advice based on my care partnering to folks living alone is to hire someone that can regularly be available for errands. Once the relationship is built taking the car is easier.

Another helpful tip for fall prevention is to purge of unused items. So many folk accumlated items for decades that are no longer needed. Getting rid of them get rid of fall hazards but it also makes choices easier. For example, purge old clothes so thry dont pile up and this also make for chose outfit easier for dementia folks.

That was great!

No other note. You mentioned laughter! The best dementia laughter I've found is Teepa Snow. After a hard day, You-Tubing some Teepa Snow might be helpful.

You both did a really good job on providing resources and presenting this topic. Thank you.

Involving and including other people help in our unique journey with dementia also helps educate society. The more experince people have in socializing with folks affected by dementia the more comfort we can be with this disease. There's no may false stero-types with what dementia is. Taking someone up on their offer to help, helps us educate others about the diseases.

Athought the ideal respite it to have a couple hours to yourself to be free to do what you want. Repite can also look like someone coming to the house for an hour so that you can take a nap, read or do something without be interupted.

Care giver support groups are also wonderful. I lead 2 at the Edmonds Community Center for the Alzheimer's Assocation. They are well attended. The caregivers are very supportive and understanding of eachother's unique situation.

Caregivers often feel like they are a burden to friends when they share their struggles. The "check-in" buddy makes that feeling of burdern not so much.

That was a great sharing. Thank you. I particularly like the "check-in" buddy idea.

I was with a gentleman today and he mentioned at 92 that he still goes to Third Place books in Lake Forest Park on Saturday nights for informal dancing. Says they have it on Fridays and Saturday evening. Just show up and dancing. I am planning to check it out.

Yes with the weather getting better we all look forward to being outside! I have another gentleman I help that loves to get outside. Unfortunately, his wife can't walk far so I've taken it under my wing. He likes to look at things that people have discarded on the side of the road. I've thought about getting a 5 gallon pail and a trash picker-up thing and we can gather recycles. His wife is an old school recycler. Meaning labels off clean recycles. It could be a project between the 2 of them!

It was very joyful to see my friend smile when I told him the various moves my son did because they are often ridiculously named. You had to be a wrestler to understand the conversation between he and I.

Mentioning different idea for movement with those with dementia can make a caregiver anxious with timing and logistics. I think it's important to remember that respite can often look like teaming up with family and friends to take the love one affect with dementia away from the house to do things.

It's also nice to include those with dementia in sports as spectators. My sons wrestle, and I would often share photos and videos of their matches with my friend that has dementia and once wrestled through college. I even offered to take him to a match, but someone beat me to the invitation. The same thing can be done with a sport like tennis. One can attend the Seattle Tennis Center at Magnuson Park and watch various tennis matches.

There's an app I have used called Eventbrite. I will look at it to see what's happening around town. For example, there's a boat house tour on 4/30 T 10:30 am, the Boys of the 1936 Boathouse Tour. The book has been so popular with seniors, especially seniors with ties to the area.

I was just recently at the Lock in Ballard. I hadn't been there since I was a kid. I was very interesting. The crews that tie-up will chat about their job and discuss the cargos going through and how the lock system works. It's also a pretty area to walk around in.