Workshop for caregivers of dementia patients

MARYLAND – The Department of aging and disabilities announced two upcoming virtual caregiver educational workshops. Officials tells 47 ABC, the workshop is a high impact virtual dementia simulation experience.

This workshop allows care givers to experience what it’s like to have dementia, so they better understand how to care for their loved one or patient. Program directors say, the workshop uses special gloves, glasses and confusion sounds which affects the senses, tricks the brain and confuses the brain by giving brief symptoms of someone who has dementia.

However, due to the pandemic caregivers say they have noticed a drastic change in many patients and loved ones, because much of the usual activities done to help dementia patients, can’t be done now. Directors say, that’s why this workshop is needed now more than ever.

Mary Chaput, program director of the department of aging and disabilities say, “We all know that keeping someone with dementia socially active is really important to slow down the progression of the disease and that’s not happening right now. Our care givers are telling us that they’re seeing real changes and much quicker changes then they were seeing before this pandemic happened.”

The program director also says this workshop is open to anyone in the state of Maryland. If you wish to learn more, you can call (410)-222-4339 for more information or email agchap01@aacounty.org.