11/05/2026
INCLUDE THEM 💫
Let’s get them involved in the day to day activities we often start to do “for” them as their dementia progresses.
The familiar activities like watering the garden, folding the washing, cutting up vegetables, setting the table, dusting… these are often activities that involve skills that the person retains well into the disease.
How well they do the activity is NOT important anymore. It’s about getting them involved and not getting caught up about if they are doing it “right” or not. It doesn’t matter - as long as they are safe and engaged. This mindset can be hard to come to in the beginning, especially as we all have our own “rules and standards” about how things should be done.
It’s about engagement not perfection!
It’s about experiencing joy not completing the task perfectly.
It’s about feeling needed and useful.
It’s about being treated as though they still have skills and abilities, and can contribute.
Depending on the stage of dementia will depend on how much carer involvement is required to set up, prompt and monitor the activity, the difficulty of the task as well as how long they can concentrate for.
Our role as OTs is to help brainstorm with families and carers suitable activities that can help people living with dementia to still engage despite changing abilities 💫💫
