Why Storytelling Is a Helpful Activity for People with Dementia
People with dementia often deal with a lot of mental and emotional issues, including intense agitation, confusion, and stress. Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to help memory care communities understand and connect with seniors who have dementia.
Your senior loved one with dementia may speak less due to challenges with communicating, but telling stories can be a crucial part of their identity. Whether they recall and share a true memory or make up a fictional anecdote, just listening to them talk can make a huge difference in their life.
In this post, we’ll discuss the importance of storytelling in the life of your senior loved one with dementia. Read along!
The Importance of Storytelling for Your Loved One with Dementia
Enhancing Cognitive Engagement
Dementia’s progression significantly depends on how active your loved one’s cognitive functions are. Cognitive functions, including memory, attention, and reasoning abilities, can all be engaged through storytelling. While many people believe storytelling is only about recounting a past event, it’s more about thinking of an event, structuring it, and putting it into context.
When your loved one with dementia indulges in storytelling, they may tap into long-term memories and dig up details that everyone thought they had forgotten. Show them a picture of their pet or ask them about that one international trip they made years ago.
As they recollect their memories and subsequently organize their thoughts into a logical sequence, it’ll engage and stimulate multiple areas of the brain. However, their stories don’t always need to make sense or follow a logical sequence. Even if their stories are fictional or don’t add up, it’s always a positive thing for them to talk and speak their minds.
Fostering Emotional Connections
People with dementia have to face many emotional barriers, which often lead to feelings of isolation, loneliness, and heightened levels of frustration. Storytelling helps them engage and foster emotional connections. In fact, many memory care communities organize Cherished Memories Collections programs where your loved one with dementia will be encouraged to revisit their memories and talk about them.
Each memory holds emotional significance for your loved one, whether it’s a story of childhood adventures or about the love that got away. By sharing personal stories, they’ll help residents, family members, and community staff understand their emotions, experiences, and perspectives. Over time, sharing stories will create connections, prevent feelings of isolation, and provide a sense of belonging.
Boosting Mood and Relaxation
It’s easy for seniors with dementia to detach from everyone and live in their heads, which can lead to depression. While they may not be able to talk about how they feel, they do feel all the emotions, including sadness. However, a simple act of sitting down with them and patiently listening to their stories can drastically improve their mood. Moreover, it can also boost their self-esteem, making them feel heard and valued.
If your loved one with dementia feels agitated and stressed, talking to them straight out about their emotions might make them feel attacked, which will cause them to spiral even further. The best way to relax them is by calmly indulging them in storytelling. Discussing something or someone familiar to them can help draw out memories and relax their mind.
Enhancing Communication Skills
As dementia progresses, your senior loved one may struggle even more with their communication. However, indulging in storytelling will help them maintain their communication skills. With a structured approach to communication, covering the beginning, middle, and ending of the stories, your loved one will be able to organize their thoughts and understandably present their ideas.
With time, their communication may improve, allowing them to express their needs, desires, and feelings more effectively.
Discover Memory Care That Values Communication at Briarview Senior Living
Seniors with dementia are extremely vulnerable to mental and emotional challenges, but one thing that can improve their cognitive engagement and prevent isolation and loneliness is storytelling. Senior living communities with memory care understand the importance of storytelling for their residents.
If you’re struggling to take care of your senior loved one’s memory-related issues like Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, consider moving them to Briarview Senior Living. Here at Briarview Senior Living, we have well-trained staff who are patient, empathetic, and kind towards our residents dealing with dementia. We prioritize their mental, emotional, and cognitive needs through a range of amenities and services.
How about you schedule a tour of Briarview Senior Living and meet our staff before entrusting your loved one to our care?
