Activity ideas for people with learning disabilities affected by dementia

Learning disabilities and dementia  

It's important for people with learning disabilities who have a diagnosis of dementia to have consistency. This should include consistency with carers, their routine and where they live. Having a familiar and well-established routine and ensuring activities regularly occur in the same order can help reduce stress and worry. Furthermore, it's essential to be flexible and adapt the routine to meet their needs. 

Living with a learning disability and dementia may present unique challenges, but it should never prevent someone from living a fulfilling and meaningful life. In care homes, providing engaging activities for people with learning disabilities and dementia is crucial for promoting their wellbeing, independence, and overall quality of life.  

Person Centred Software's Oomph On-Demand Wellbeing & Activities Platform for residents and staff has a variety of fun activities that help residents to:  

Below are a few examples of various activities that our wellbeing and activity solutions have to offer that individuals can engage in: 

Cooking 

Cooking is a fun way to promote independence and provide opportunities for social connection. Stirring, kneading, and dividing food items into portions can also enhance dexterity and fine motor skills - this is particularly beneficial for individuals living with dementia who experience severe impairment in these areas. Furthermore, cooking can also stimulate the senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, hearing), which has the potential to trigger happy memories.  

Our Oomph On-Demand Wellbeing & Activities platform offers a variety of step-by-step recipes on how to make unique fruit salads, ice cream, cakes, and burgers; the list goes on. The sense of accomplishment from creating a delicious treat can help residents feel a sense of pride, and it's also a great way to bond with the person you're caring for.  

Meditation 

Meditation is an activity that individuals of any age or physical ability can enjoy to nurture their body and mind. Mediation has numerous psychological and physical benefits that can significantly enhance one's quality of life. It can help to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, regulate mood, and help to improve memory and sleep, along with a whole heap of other benefits.  

Oomph provides a diverse range of meditation sessions that help take the resident's body into an intense state of relaxation, from relaxing forest and ocean meditation videos to guided outdoor meditation sessions and lots more. If you haven't tried meditation with the residents you care for, it's relatively simple to start. 

Art therapy 

When we think about our health and wellbeing, we naturally relate it to a good diet and exercise because of the proven long-term benefits. However, having a creative hobby, such as drawing, painting or gardening, can also benefit mental and emotional health.  

People with learning disabilities and dementia can experience high amounts of anxiety every day. To help reduce their anxiety, care providers can easily incorporate creative hobbies into a resident's routine, which also helps to improve their wellbeing, aid recovery, and support them to live longer and healthier lives while having fun. Incorporating art and creativity into residents' lives allows them to express themselves and be engaged in what they're doing and helps to give them a meaningful focus. 

Oomph offers a wide selection of arts and crafts activities, from making a terrarium and festive wreath to pumpkin crafting, drawing, painting sessions, and lots more, helping residents express their emotions while boosting their happiness and reducing stress.  

Choose an activity that is meaningful to the resident you care for 

To achieve the best outcomes, care providers should select activities tailored to the unique needs and interests of the residents they care for. This approach ensures that the activities are enjoyable and beneficial to the residents' overall wellbeing. If the person you care for has a particular interest, you could use this to engage them in new activities.  

Oomph On-Demand enables people in care to participate in specialist activity programmes 24-7 tailored to the interests and needs of each individual. Whatever their interest is, puzzles, crosswords, Bollywood dancing, learning about animals or making vegan brownies, you name it, Oomph has it.  
 
Get in touch with us today to learn more about our Oomph On-Demand Wellbeing and Activities platform and discover how it can benefit you.