She’s in a memory unit in an AL facility. She’s mostly bed ridden as she has no desire to get out of bed. Recently, she doesn’t want the TV on and just lays in bed watching the Echo Show monitor (I use it to FaceTime with her) as the pictures change on it. Watching TV was the only thing she did until now for entertainment. She doesn’t want to participate in social activities in MC. I’m wondering if this is part of her decline, although I haven’t noticed that anything else has changed. Guess I worry about her quality of life since she just lays in bed all day and does nothing. I live out of state and visit once a month for a few days and call on the Echo Show daily. My brother lives about 30 minutes from the AL and visits once a week. Has anyone noticed a loss of interest in watching TV when a LO has dementia? Thanks!
TV is boring. I do not like any if the virtual reality shows or 60 min type things. What I do is stream some of the old shows. There is also a channel called MeTV. Has shows from the 60s/70s. I would put this in for Mom and seemed to hold her interest.
Find a genre of music she likes and play that for her.
Or often a particular artist can be played continuously.
My Husband had problems with lots of shows. For example:
The setting was dark on a lot of shows.
Music in the background over powered the spoken word.
Background noise often did the same.
Story lines were fast and he lost the ability to keep track of what was going on.
Our cable company recently updated their TV Guide, and there are now many more steps involved when trying to find something good to watch. New and improved... NOT.
In spite of what TChamp keeps droning on and ON about here on the forum, elders with dementia DO have some quality of life left when loved ones visit them, when they get special treats to eat, when they get to see photos (or visits from) of their grand and great grandchildren, and when they get gifts or tokens of love & affection from those that love and appreciate them. LOVE prevails and overrides disease! Even people who are in a COMA are able to HEAR and know when loved ones are nearby holding their hands & speaking with them. While we ALL KNOW that dementia is a terrible and 'incurable' disease, we ALSO know that our loved ones are still THERE inside their bodies, and that WE are there FOR THEM, too! We're not writing them off or tossing them aside like garbage b/c they are suffering from dementia! They are still worthy of all the same love and attention we'd show anyone else we respect and love in our lives! They're family members, for petesake! I visited my mother with advanced dementia at least weekly and more during the last months of her life, and I know that she appreciated those visits, and so did I, as hard as they were. I'm glad I visited her and I'm glad I did all that I did for her, and would do it all again in a heartbeat.
When we come to forum with questions & concerns, we are looking for empathy and suggestions for help......a way to get through to our loved ones who are difficult or who suffer from dementia and seem 'impossible' to deal with. We are not here to hear that our loved ones are 'hopeless' or that they're 'incurable' or that there's 'nothing we can do for them at all.' That's B.S., pure and simple. If we wanted to write them off, we'd have done that long ago and wouldn't be on a forum seeking advice!
However she completely stopped watching movies: too difficult for her to follow the plot. She used to read a lot of novels: too difficult to remember the plot, characters.
But politics is fine. In fact, with dementia: often what stays intact as long as possible, is long-term memory and your life-long expertise (in her case, politics).
She can hear the tv in the home’s common room and I suspect a news report scared her. She was certain police had located a girl’s body in the home. The night before, the lead news story described the awful discovery of a girl’s body in our closest big city. TV might be scary and confusing.
Like you, I hate to see these declines. I take my iPad and try to show her photos of familiar people and places. I read her mail. I subscribed to her childhood town newspaper, take it and read articles with familiar family names, businesses, etc. Most days she barely acknowledges me or tells me to leave because she wants to nap. Physically she’s in pretty good shape so I wonder how long this will go on.
She swears she doesn't watch it at all, but if you up up to visit during "Bonanza' you may as well not stay.
If your mom seems content with watching picture slide by, I wouldn't make any fuss whatsoever about the TV thing.
So much of what is on is plain old garbage (I am not a TV watcher, myself) and she has seen every episode of her favorite shows dozens of times.
Mom's world is very, very small. And she likes it that way. I would leave well enough alone. If she wants music--you can find a TV channel (or hundreds of them!) that simply play soothing music. I listen to my Echo all day when DH is out of the house.
Finally , I was able to get her to turn on JTV jewelry show, to watch.. the caregivers got better suggesting ..about turning it on
i think it’s all part of the decline..not participating etc..physically weak I am sure..
my mom was sleeping more and more as she was dying…
Her dementia is bringing her down. Nothing will stop her deterioration. It's unfortunate, but this is the reality of dementia. A devastating and cruel disease for which there is no cure.
My husband who had vascular dementia and was completely bedridden for the last 22 months of his life, had the TV on 24/7. I'm not sure he always understood the spoken words, or understood what was going on, but I think he just liked having the "noise" of it on.
My very elderly aunt with advanced dementia went through a phase like this, couldn't even watch kid's cartoons...language and plots too tough for her to process or retain. It would actually agitate her. But then one time we put in a Disney animated movie and accidentally had the closed captions on and now she is once again happy to watch but she is actually reading the captions aloud to herself, even reads the closing credits. I don't think she's getting the plot at all but the reading is a purposeful activity for her. My aunt is 100 yrs old and watches 2 to 3 DVDs every day, reading all the while, and the same rotation of movies (since she has no short-term memory).
Is her tv big enough to see it well from her bed? What did she used to watch? Make sure it isn't something "dark" or violent...an animal show or Disney channel or Nickelodeon might be better choices. Have your brother turn on the closed captions on your mother's tv and see if that makes a difference.