Essex County Library offers 'care kits' to connect family, loved ones with dementia

If you have a loved one with dementia, the Essex County Library wants to help you spend quality time with them. 

Manuela Denes, Essex County Library's manager of community services, knows how difficult it can be to care for someone with a cognitive disorder. But she also knows just how hard it is to continue to connect with them and share meaningful conversations. 

"Having had a parent, my mother, be diagnosed with vascular dementia, it was overwhelming for myself as a daughter and also as a care partner," she said. 

It's why she was inspired to bring a new initiative to county libraries: cognitive care kits. 

The kits include a range of activities, from a keyboard to conversation-starter games and paint sets. And they're meant to keep people with dementia mentally active and connected to their loved ones. 

WATCH: Take a look inside a cognitive care kit

"Had I known that the public library in my neighbourhood had a collection of something like this, to connect with my mother, it would have been a godsend," said Denes. 

"It would have meant me not leaving her sitting in a chair and watching the TV, it would have been us playing a game together, or for herself because she did fidget quite a bit, it would give her something to do with her hands."

There are two types of kits, one for someone in early-to-mid onset and another for mid-to-late onset. The early-to-mid onset one has more challenging activities like a board game that asks the person questions about their life, whereas the later stage kit can include a keyboard or more tactile, fidget toys. 

The kits were created with the help of Rosemary Fiss. She's the director of programs at the Alzheimer Society of Windsor & Essex County. 

She says this is an important initiative as it can help people with a diagnosis stay engaged with their hobbies or discover new ones. 

"I think one misconception that we have is that the person [with the diagnosis] is not able to do anything anymore," she said. 

"And sometimes, soon as that diagnosis comes, there's an assumption that the person's abilities are completely negated ... that person can still do so many things, it just may need to be adapted." 

For example, Fiss says that if the person read before their diagnosis, they can likely still do that after, it just requires some changes. Their books should include large print, with a simple font and the words should only be on one page.