Kate Dyer-Seeley  

One of the major issues in Alzheimer’s care today is training and the lack of it for caregivers.  The Virtual Dementia Tour is an innovative simulation of what it feels like to function with dementia.

One quick side note here, when I speak I’m often asked what’s the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s?  The general perception seems to be that dementia is a better diagnosis than Alzheimer’s.  Not the case.  Dementia is an impairment in memory that inhibits a person from completing daily tasks.  Alzheimer’s is a common cause of dementia.  There can be other medical causes for dementia including: strokes, severe depression, and head injuries.  Another way to think of it is that dementia is the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

Back to the Virtual Dementia Tour–in the tour caregivers, family members, and medical staff are outfitted with foggy spotted goggles and headphones that play constant background noise.  Then their shoes are filled with un-popped popcorn.  Gloves with un-popped popcorn on the fingertips are placed on their hands, and three fingers are taped together.  Now the true test begins, participants are asked to perform basic tasks, like finding a tie in a dimly lit room.  As you can imagine this simple task becomes nearly impossible to complete and creates instant empathy for the experience of dementia.  If you’d like to learn more about the video click here.  With the staggering number of baby boomers developing the disease, I hope this tour becomes mandatory in caregiver training.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 6:32 am and is filed under Alzheimer's Info, Speaking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.