The Jaffrey Public Library is creating kits to help people within the community with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Pre-COVID-19, the library was was working with the Monadnock Adult Care Center in Jaffrey, holding adult story time and memory cafes. When COVID caused the library’s programs to go remote, it continued to provide materials and books for the center to continue programs on its own. But now, with a grant provided by the Jaffrey Community Center Committee, the library will be putting together a dozen “memory kits” – boxes with a theme that include a book, dementia-friendly games or puzzles, music and tangible memory prompts like photos or objects.
“It was a powerful experience for us. People who, 10 minutes later, might not remember who you are or what you were talking about, in the moment, would be talking about their memories growing up on the farm,” said Library Director Julie Perrin. “In that moment, you wouldn’t know they were suffering from a memory issue.”
Perrin said she heard about similar programs at other libraries. It’s not an unfamiliar concept for Jaffrey Public Library, as it has other “kits” that families can take out on loan which include activities in science or art. The library applied for — and was awarded – a $1,560 grant to purchase and stock the kits from the Jaffrey Community Center Committee.
Perrin said she has already seen the benefits some of the tools can have, when a book would spark a conversation among the Monadnock Adult Care Center clients, and they would begin talking about their childhood memories related to the story.
The Monadnock Adult Care Center has even taken out some of those kits to share with its residents and spur discussion, said MACC Director Chris Selmer. He said it not only engages people in the moment, but lets staff and family members know what engages them the most, to help with future therapies.
“It’s about taking them back in time to when they have happy memories,” Selmer said. “It spurs on that conversation.”
Selmer worked with Monadnock Adult Care Center clients to decide on some of the themes for the memory kits such as sewing, classic cars, cooking or trains. Perrin said some of the tools she has purchased include magnet boards with magnets in various shapes – one has all the tools someone might find in a sewing kit, for example – that include various prompts for family members or MACC staff to help guide a conversation. A puzzle of a seaside scene, for example, might prompt questions about family vacations or trips to the beach.
And along with the rest of the box, Perrin said some of the items will be specifically for caretakers, because while the boxes will be used by the Monadnock Adult Care Center, they’ll also be available for checkout by anyone in the community who would like to use the tools with their own family members. The boxes will include things such as pamphlets and information on local resources for people in need of memory care, as well as books written about caretaking for a family member with memory issues.
“We’re so grateful to the Town of Jaffrey that we were able to make this happen,” Selmer said. “This is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that COVID made us engage in. I hope it’s something other libraries take up.”
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.