Wondering how to connect with a loved one who has dementia? Your Essex County Library can help

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

Essex County libraries have care kits for people with dementia. Here's what they include

20 days ago

Duration 2:20

Essex County Library is launching cognitive care kits, which are bins of activities specifically for people with dementia. They were created in partnership with the Alzheimer Society of Windsor & Essex County.

"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. 

Important for people to engage with hobbies: Alzheimer society

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. 

Information sessions to be held this month

There are 22 cognitive care kits across Essex County Library branches. People who are interested in signing one out need to first book a meeting with library staff. 

Denes says staff went through a dementia training program and will be able to walk people through the kits. 

Throughout November, Essex County Library and Alzheimer Society of Windsor & Essex County will hold several information sessions at different library branches. People can expect to learn more about what dementia is and how to sign out a kit at the sessions. 

More information is available at the Essex County Library website. 

"We really want to be more than books, we want to provide... those opportunities for meaningfully conversations with our staff [or] you might come into the library and meet somebody else that's going through the same journey, make some new friends," said Denes.