Virtual Dementia Tour - Teaching Tool

To get a taste of what life is like for a spouse or parent with Alzheimer's Diesease and see what their world is like.......that is the reason for the virtual dementia tour.

Those who elect to take the "tour" slip on gloves with the fingers taped together, they wear goggles that are clouded on the side with magic marker  and have a large blacked out dot in the center of each lense. But that is not all they will be putting on in preparation for their virtual dementia tour. They also get a headset playing random voices and noise and prickly inserts for their shoes.

This Virtual Dementia Tour - complete with "accessories" was created by Second Wind Dreams, a national organization that offers educational tools for caregivers. The tour tries to help people get a glimpse of what it's like to have various forms of dementia, along with other ailments that come with aging.

Once ready, they were sent into a semi-darkened room to perform 5 simple tasks in 3 minutes.

Those on the tour knew they only had to endure it for a short period of time but for those who have the various forms of dementia, and their loved ones, their is no escape, it is their reality.
Most came away from the experience humbled because they couldn't finish the tasks, even with all their pistons firing correctly in their heads. The gloves were worn outside in with ruber grip bumps attached and a few fingers taped together to simulate arthritis.

The goggles helped participants understand macular degenerative disease.

The headphones with the voices  because for someone with dementia they can't always focus on what you're saying - you may be asking them to do one thing and thYou may be telling them one thing but their mind may be hearing the television or the radio or the conversation next to them.

They wanted people who still have clear minds  and good hands to see first-hand how difficult it is for someone who is not fully cognizant - how much harder it is to live in their world.

Alzheimer's disease and similar illnesses slowly eat away a person's memory, destroying short-term first, then erasing older memories before death.




God bless the caregivers - they are our unsung heroes and are truly doing His work.