Memory Care Tools is a kit featuring easy-to-use tools that comfort your loved with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia.

1. Introducing by Alzheimer’s Family Services Center

2. What do teddy bears, squeeze balls, napkins for folding, playing cards, and puzzles have in common? They are easy-to-use tools that can be enjoyed either independently by a person with memory loss or with family/caregivers.

4. As cognitive abilities decline and the ability to speak diminishes, the person may try to express his or her needs behaviorally.

6. Stress Reduction

7. Reminiscence

8. Self-Expression

9. Purposefulness

11. Squeeze Ball (1)

12. Napkins for Folding (4)

13. Deck of Cards (1)

14. Paper Games (4)

15. Communication Board (1)

16. Canvas Bag for Carrying (1)

18. How do you know it works? Originally developed by AFSC as part of a joint pilot project with Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in 2008, Memory Care Tools were coupled with training of healthcare professionals (i.e., nurses, personal care assistants) to promote use of person-centered strategies, rather than physical or chemical restraints, for managing difficult behaviors (e.g., anxiety, agitation, resistance to care, and wandering) while patients with dementia were hospitalized. According to the nurses, of the times the tools were used during the pilot project, they nearly always helped manage the difficult behavior, prevented the use of physical restraints, and averted the need for families to hire costly sitters. Given this success, Memory Care Tools have been adopted as a new standard of care hospital wide at Hoag. As an outgrowth of this successful effort, AFSC has developed an affordably priced package containing key easy-to-use tools for caregivers as individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia often develop challenging behaviors that can be difficult to manage in the home environment.

19. Tell me about Alzheimer’s Family Services Center. In 1980, a small group of visionary community leaders, committed to ending the practice of leaving confused, forgetful elders alone to pace hospital halls, founded Alzheimer’s Family Services Center. Our founders welcomed a handful of elders to a parish hall to enjoy days filled with meaningful, pleasurable activities. What began three decades ago in a church as an all-volunteer effort is now a state-of-the-art, dementia-specific facility where persons with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia receive compassionate care, and families can access much-needed support and education.

20. Order Your Kit Today by Alzheimer’s Family Services Center www.AFSCenter.org/MCT (714) 593-9630