Outdoor time eases stress for dementia patients
DUBLIN, Ohio — Nancy Moore used the spading fork to loosen the dirt and then she pulled a few weeds from among the petunias and the marigolds in the raised flower bed.
She wasn’t terribly excited about the task because gardening isn’t really her thing — the 90-year-old former dance teacher would much rather be tapping — but this is what her friends at Senior Star Dublin Retirement Village were doing on a recent Thursday afternoon, so she joined them.
“I enjoy the flowers but not the garden work,” Moore said, right before she let loose of her walker and spent a couple minutes hop-shuffle-stepping, hopshuffle-stepping to show off her dance moves.
“It’s nice to be outside, though.”
And that seems to be the key.
Though the coronavirus pandemic has upended everyone’s life, perhaps it has been most troublesome for those with some level of dementia, such as Moore and her friends who are among the 36 residents who live in the memorycare support wing of Senior Star.
For many with dementing illness, there’s just no understanding why your family suddenly stopped visiting, why everyone’s wearing masks, why people are always demanding that you wash your hands.
Dr. Marian K. Schuda, medical director of OhioHealth’s John J. Gerlach Center for Senior Health, said the easiest way to explain it to people who have never dealt with someone with memory issues is to compare it to caring for a toddler.
“How do you get a 2year-old who is frustrated to settle down? How do you get a 3-year-old who doesn’t understand why they can’t do something to stop doing it?” she said. “For patients with dementia, it’s similar. It’s harder for them to understand what’s going on around them and they don’t have as many ways of coping as they used to.”