Residents Residents we interact with are elderly ladies with moderate dementia who live in the lodge. To make their lives more interesting, we design games/activities for their enjoyment and mental stimulation. However, we mostly just talk and listen to the residents; Oftentimes they share interesting life experience and pieces of wisdom. While they do not remember us, and some of them have at times mistaken us for another person they have once known, we get to know them over the course of many visits. Despite dementia, each resident has their own personalities and habits – for instance, singing. During one of the sessions, one of the residents taught me how to sing Rasa Sayang, the tune was extremely catchy and fun even though I couldn’t speak Malay. She also repeatedly told me not to be shy with my voice, and to sing no matter what people tell me. Singing is good for my English. Lodge Staff The AHL staff play an important role in our activities as they make our interactions with the residents slightly easier. We can interact with the residents comfortably and, should the resident require help in getting up or going somewhere else, the staff will help them out as they’re more experienced with that than us. They also help us overcome the language barrier, as many of the residents don’t speak a lot of English. The staff helps us by translating what we’re saying and encouraging the residents to participate in the activities that we’ve planned out for the day to make our interactions slightly easier. One of the residents, Jessie, speaks mostly Malay, so some of the staff at AHL that speak Malay could help us translate what we’re saying and encourage Jessie to participate in the activity. Students (Us) As students, we plan the activities for every week we go to AHL. This is important because we need to be able to explain the activities to our resident partners and make sure that they have a general understanding of what’s happening so that they enjoy their time during the activity. Even though we end up talking more than doing the activity, it’s still enjoyable to go to AHL because we get to understand the lives of people with dementia, and some of us have realized that it’s really not that different from our lives. We try to base our activities on things the residents like doing, such as singing, drawing, and painting. However, we also encourage them to do some other activities that build on the basic ones, such as stenciling to build fine motor skills and stimulate further brain activity. Thus, we have to make sure that the activities that we plan are not only fun and enjoyable for the residents, but also serve a greater purpose in terms of how it helps them. – Wing and Advait
