Is Watching TV Beneficial?
What’s the default for a lazy day for many older adults? We’ve seen this happen many times. In care homes and in their own homes seniors are constantly watching hours of mindless TV. This is the crutch for many elderly, who can’t find activities to do.
Watching TV is not necessarily a bad thing. And can be a useful tool to engage the mind for a little while. However, it needs to be used appropriately to reap benefits.
If TV watching is done all day, everyday, and the shows are mindless noise, the brain is not used for thinking. It becomes inactive and the images are becoming an abstraction. Hours of TV watching makes a person with dementia passive. Allowing the disease more opportunity to ravage an already declining brain. We even call this mindless TV watching.
Productive Watching
You can have a purposeful TV watching session though. If there is an interesting show or two that you can set aside time to watch. It’s very engaging and is a productive activity. Why? Because your mind is willing to understand and think and be engaged for the time it’s watching a TV show. Many mysteries are good to watch. Although for many people who have late stages of Alzheimer’s disease. A complicated show may bother them as they will not be able to follow it properly.
Also, many people with dementia can mistake TV shows for reality. This can bring about fear and misconception. Turning the TV off at this time would be ideal. Therapeutic reasoning™ may also be needed to return them to ease. (Reasoning which is logical to the person and which results in a calm feeling).
Look at the televisions shows list and choose some purposeful shows for your loved one to watch. Consider the sounds and pace of the show. Sometimes watching something over stimulating on TV can bring on anxiety. Seeing this happen may indicate time for other activity idea to fill the day. Try coming up with other creative ideas to keep their (and your) brain stimulated. If you need any suggestions, feel free to send us a note, as we would be happy to assist.
Karen 🙂
Karen Tyrell, CDP, CPCA
Personalized Dementia Solutions
Personalized Dementia Solutions
www.DementiaSolutions.ca
3 Responses
My mom in nursing home during COVID- all activities shut off, no activities or interaction with others except those dropping off trays or changing diapers. Watching news program only. Now she thinks they need correspondents are speaking to her personally and she talks back with them. Doctor diagnosing her with scitzophrenia. ( previously diagnosed with slight dementia). He is prescribing Ambilify for scitzophrenia. I read that abilify can cause death and not recommended for age related psychosis which is what this seems like to me.
Hello Emily. Thank you for sharing your story about your Mom. Your concerns are understandable. I’m Maria, Karen’s Assistant. I will be sending you an email shortly. It will come from Maria@DementiaSolutions.ca so if you don’t see it in your Inbox, kindly check your Spam folder or you can also send me an email. I will be sending you an email as soon as I send this message off to you. Thank you again and know that we are here to support you as best as we could. Thank you for reaching out. Sending you an email soon. Keep well.
My husband gets so upset when he can’t turn on and off the tv, we have cable and he can find channels he just can’t figure out how to turn and off the tv.