A Guide for Virtual and Telephone Visits
Staff from the Alzheimer Society of Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, Haliburton, the Alzheimer Society of Oxford, and the Alzheimer Society of Ontario have written and produced Together Apart: A Guide to Visiting from a Distance in response to COVID-19 to help reduce the social isolation people living with dementia are facing, which you can download on this page.
About Together Apart: A Guide to Visiting from a Distance
Staff from the Alzheimer Society of Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, Haliburton, the Alzheimer Society of Oxford and the Alzheimer Society of Ontario have written and produced this Guide in response to COVID-19 to help reduce the social isolation people living with dementia are facing, which you can download below.
The reality is that people living with dementia faced social isolation regularly before COVID-19 but with physical distancing a requirement, the isolation has intensified. Fully knowing the value of our volunteer visitors in the lives of our clients living with dementia and their care partners and the connection between the volunteer and the person living with dementia, we wanted to respond by equipping our volunteers to change their in-person visits to virtual visits.
Although our initial goal was to equip our volunteers with a resource that would help them in their virtual visits, we realized that family members could also use the Guide to help them in connecting and spending time with their family members living with dementia.
We hope this resource will be very helpful to you as a volunteer, family, or friend visitor and that it will bring joy to your life and the person who is living with dementia.
Virtual Visiting Activities
- Music
- People
- Sports
- Holidays
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Coming Soon
- Travel
- Nature
- Games
- Art
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Coming Soon
The Spark Program
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A recreational, phone-based program designed to spark thoughtful conversation. The Spark Program engages people living with dementia with a one on one telephone visit with a volunteer from the Alzheimer Society Waterloo Wellington. Some of the things that the volunteers may talk about are fun facts, trivia, or just spend time reminiscing. Pre-registration is required.
Please contact the Alzheimer Society at 519-742-8518 x 2090.
Additional Resources
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- Alzheimer Society of Ontario: Online learning which includes a 15-minute module on communication.
- Alzheimer Society of Canada: Communication Information Sheet
- How to talk to someone with dementia on the phone
- A Family Assessment Form
- All About Me – A Conversation Starter
- Visiting Activity Plan -Blank Template