People with dementia have
trouble and problem with short-term memory.
The keeping track of a purse or
a wallet, paying bills, planning,
preparing meals, remembering appointments,
traveling out of neighborhoods.
[NOISE] I want to talk a little bit about each of these.
Short-term memory.
Jack, are you going out?
Yes. Can you put this out on your way out?
Sure. Then you come back and
Jack is gone, the thing is still there.
That's he doesn't remember what you told him.
Keeping track of a purse or wallet,
every time, twice a day,
four times a day,
you keep asking where did I put my purse?
Have you seen my wallet
or what did I do with my newspaper?
Where's my hat, where's my umbrella?
Remember it's once in a while is okay.
But if it's persistent every day is
happening about everything, that's abnormal.
Paying bills, if you have
four bills to pay every month and you're still missing
five of those four bills, [LAUGHTER] that's abnormal.
Planning, preparing meals,
grandma had the best ravioli recipe
and then you go in and she's not like you used to be.
She didn't put the meat inside
and the mushroom is not there.
[LAUGHTER] Maybe I should've gone out with my friends.
You can see those changes that suddenly,
over a short period of time,
they can't do what they used to do.
Cooking is really a very complex task,
is different steps,
in your mind you have to think,
I'm going to buy this from this store,
then I'm going to cook this,
I'm with the onion, I have to do this.
It's a lot of actually complex task multi steps.
You'll see one of the things that actually we hear
a lot from the patient or a patient's family,
is that they can't cook anymore.
They forget how to do it.
There was a movie recently,
I don't know if you guys saw that movie.
One of the things is that when the character
who had dementia
forgot how to cook her recipe for Thanksgiving.
That's very common. Remembering appointments.
I had an appointment and I forgot.
It happens to me every couple of years.
But if we see a patient or a client that is missing,
every time you make an appointment,
she's missing a GI appointment and missing
the cardiology appointment or
showing up on another day when we're sitting there,
then Mrs. Smith comes in,
"I'm here for my appointment."
Your appointment was two days ago.
Those things are really red flags.
Traveling out of neighborhoods.
You see somebody who's been living
in this neighborhood for the last 30 years,
knows all the neighbors,
knows the names of the dogs of
the neighbors, they know everything.
Then suddenly they go out and
they don't come back, they get lost.
They end up somewhere else.
Those are red flags. That's very dangerous.
It can have love problems.
Again, unable to remember things.
One of the first thing that happens with
dementia, short-term memory.
Then asking the same question,
repeat the same story over
and over because they don't remember,
they already told you that.
Say yeah, you remember I did
this and that. That was really funny.
Then five minutes later, did I
tell you that story about this and that?
You told me. When? Let me tell you again.
Then he tells you and then five minutes later say.
This is something that's really
not typical of a normal aging.
This is something that's a red flag,
something that we should really consider,
really what's going on.
We're asking the same question.
Where's the pill cutter,
where's the remote? It's there.
Honey, where's your remote? It's there.
Great. You go back, where did you put the remote?
That's a red flag, that something that's unusual.
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