Suggestions for daily humor site geared towards dementia people?

October 31, 2014 1:08 PM

My brother and his wife both have dementia and are currently living in a memory care home and need notes from home.

We have been asked by their therapist to send daily email to them so they won't feel they are forgotten (live out of state.) I've been trying to find a site that would offer a daily riddle, story, joke, puzzle, etc to send them along with my letter and 'haven't been able to find anything geared towards the patients themselves.
The therapist prints out our email and puts them in a binder for their coffee table so they can refer to it and just know its there.
Thank you.

posted by Tullyogallaghan to Human Relations (11 answers total)

Would it need to be specifically geared toward dementia? There are a number of free daily joke sites that will send emails. Several websites (including National Geographic) also have a "photo of the day" which could maybe spark some email ideas for you.

Or, if you wanted, you could try to come up with a "memory of the day" about them...it could be difficult over time, but even something like, "I remember how you put brown sugar in your oatmeal every morning when we had breakfast together," or something could be meaningful for both you and them.
posted by odayoday at 1:16 PM on October 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

Can you help us understand what you mean by "geared towards the patients themselves?" Are you looking for something specific to dementia or something that is pointed and not general?

One of my family members has dementia, and he does not like for us to talk about our memories -- he gets frustrated and sometimes angry when we say "I remember that time when..." because he doesn't remember it. He also doesn't like jokes because he can't follow them and doesn't understand them. What about writing about little slices of your own life? You could write a couple sentences about something that happened to you -- about a cute dog you saw or a store you went to or a flower you saw on a walk or something like that. You could write a whole bunch all at once and then schedule their delivery daily.
posted by OrangeDisk at 1:31 PM on October 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

Can't you just google for regular riddles, quotations, anecdotes, news of the weird, etc, and email them? They don't need to be geared towards dementia. That would be a bit weird, right? Or do you mean they need to be of a reading level appropriate for people with dementia – that doesn't really make sense because there are many different experiences of dementia.
posted by dontjumplarry at 3:01 PM on October 31, 2014

Readers Digest has lots of good small articles and corny jokes etc. designed for accessible pleasant reading. Pick up a couple of recent issues for source material.

What about celebrity gossip from whatever Hollywood period you remember most fondly (I'm in my 30s, so it's the 80s for my siblings)? You could set up Google Alerts for some of their favorites and send them interesting updates.
posted by viggorlijah at 4:53 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

Do you have pictures you could send?

Also, a family friend who works in this area says music is the last to go, so maybe you could send links to old songs on YouTube.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:15 PM on October 31, 2014 [3 favorites]

I spent some time volunteering running activities over the phone for home bound older people- Reader's Digest jokes and anecdotes were gold.
posted by MadamM at 6:16 PM on October 31, 2014

I've got to assume you don't mean jokes about dementia, because it only seems funny to those who don't have it and aren't dealing with a loved one who does have it.

Which means the world's your oyster. From joke-of-the-day to pun-of-the-day to pic-of-the-day to astronomical-event-of-the-day, all these sources are now a few clicks away. And seconding Reader's Digest jokes and anecdotes. And straight Metafilter is a constant source of stimulation. Good luck!
posted by LonnieK at 6:58 PM on October 31, 2014

My father had dementia and he responded really well to music and poetry. He was talking about his favorite poems right up to the end. Your brother may not be like that at all though; it seems like everyone is different. I was told-- by a nursing home professional, no less-- not to bring up the past but to talk about things like current newspaper headlines. My father had very little interest in those, and found them confusing. He wanted to discuss the past.

I think what the nursing home staff is doing with the binder sounds great. Maybe at some point they could let you know which messages are working out?
posted by BibiRose at 5:03 AM on November 1, 2014

Pictures are probably good, if you have any from childhood or youth, you could scan in? Or you could go and photograph places you have been together.
Pictures of objects you have from your family might be good as well.
posted by mumimor at 6:50 AM on November 1, 2014

Response by poster: Their therapist has asked that we refrain from sending photos as they don't print up well on her b/w printer - that's why I was hoping to find a site that is especially created for people with advanced dementia that would have simple little puzzles or jokes that they might be able to grasp.
posted by Tullyogallaghan at 12:45 PM on November 1, 2014

Or about a "today in history" with a little interesting fact of the day. Not assuming that the reader actually remembers the history, just a small tidbit of information related to the date. I googled "today in history" (and discovered most results refer to themselves as "this day in history" and got a bunch of hits. Looking for one that gave a little story that is easy to read, my pick was 440.com

If you are looking for simpler, corny jokes, try a book of jokes written for children. You do a quick scan, pick one you liked and type it into your email quickly enough.
posted by metahawk at 4:33 PM on November 1, 2014