Visual Memories, Including Pets, Help with Transition into Long-Term Care

Longevity, brought on by advances in medical science, allows more people to live longer lives. However, at some point, many of us will require help with basic activities of daily living or even supervision due to memory conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia. Often no advance plan was put into place, and the family must step in. 

This support from family and friends places physical and emotional burdens on them. It can even create financial burdens, as adult children and their spouses must take time off from work to help care for a loved one. 

Many times the family will move their loved one into an assisted living facility, memory care facility, or nursing home that provides many or all of the long-term care services they need. The transition can be difficult for both the person making a move and their loved ones.

Cognitive Decline Often Requires Facility Care

Approximately half of adults with dementia reside in nursing homes or assisted living facilities, and about 70% of Americans with dementia will die in a nursing home. Whether the need for a facility is supervision or help with activities of daily living, the need to find solutions for a better transition is just as critical as how it will be paid for and the impact of a family’s assets.

“It is very important, even critical, for these patients to have familiar and emotionally meaningful items surrounding them in their rooms. Photos of loved ones, mementos of happy times, and other items with which they have a positive emotional connection really go a long way towards improving the quality of their day-to-day life while living in a nursing facility.”

Dr. Thomas Schweinberg

Dr. Schweinberg serves as the staff neuropsychologist for the Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason, Ohio, just outside Cincinnati. Schweinberg has not only worked with nursing home residents but has also had had several close family members who resided in long-term nursing facilities.

He says the unfamiliar surroundings of a long-term care facility can be made to feel more like home, which gives the person more connection to their past life to ease the transition.

“This can be particularly true for those patients with dementia. With dementia, patients can become all the more disoriented, and perhaps even upset, by the unfamiliar surroundings and people. However, even those with dementia often have their long-term memories firmly intact. Having visual reminders of their previous lives can be very reassuring for them and can help to keep them grounded and rooted in who they are and what their lives have been about even if their current circumstances are confusing and unfamiliar.”

Dr. Schweinberg

Photos and other mementos, says Schweinberg, and the memories that they evoke can be psychologically therapeutic. The result is a more positive mood and outlook for an elderly family member.

One type of therapy that is used is called Reminiscence Therapy. Reminiscence Therapy, explains Schweinberg, is based on the notion of recalling and talking about memories.

“Even memories of difficult life circumstances can help to reduce or alleviate depression in elderly patients.“

Dr. Schweinberg.

Pets and Long-Term Care

Since so many people have had multiple pets during their lifetime, can the power of pets be put to good use to help a person make their kind of transition? Schweinberg says, yes.

“It has been well-established that pets have a therapeutic and often calming impact on people in general. However, there is also evidence that, for the elderly, owning and interacting with pets can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, increase social interaction, and increase physical activity. These last two benefits are particularly helpful to the elderly, who often begin to limit their activities and increasingly withdraw from the interpersonal world around them.”

Dr. Schweinberg.

Ali Orr, a well-known artist who specializes in pet drawings, says she deals with many families in this situation (https://www.etsy.com/shop/AliOrrArt or on Facebook at @aliorrart - www.facebook.com/aliorrart)

“People absolutely adore their pets and really do view them as members of the family. I am obsessed with my dog and cannot picture my life without him in it. A lot of my customers are completely head-over-heels for their pets as well and even view their pets as their babies no matter what age they might be.”

Ali Orr

Photos and Drawings of Favorite Pets Help Those in Care

Orr is often asked to create drawings of pets, both living and dead. This can bring strong positive memories and emotions for people.

“These drawings give people comfort, which is an amazing feeling for me and I am glad that the drawing is part of their healing process. I’ve watched or heard people cry as they opened their gift and reminisce on the memories of their pets. Each time is an emotional moment.”

Ali Orr

These gifts for older family members can bring a strong positive outlook that Dr. Schweinberg says the key to a transition to Long-Term Care.

“Being able to talk about one’s past life experiences to someone who is genuinely interested and actively listening can provide these patients with an enhanced self-esteem, a sense of meaning about their lives, as well as a sense of validation regarding their worth as a person. Also, the opportunity to reminisce with an interested listener can also provide something that psychologists refer to as “generativity,” which refers to the sense of satisfaction and purpose that comes with being able to pass on the life lessons they have learned, and the hard-earned wisdom that their life experiences provided them, to someone younger.”

Dr. Schweinberg

Orr says people will send her multiple photographs of pets they owned throughout a person‘s lifetime. She creates a piece of art that can hang in a person’s room, which aids in their transition to a long-term care facility.

In this example, three individual photographs become one group drawing.

“My hope that every drawing I make either brings someone comfort when remembering the pets that have passed away or brings happiness when they see the resemblance of their pet in the drawing. I hope when someone looks at the drawing of their pet(s) that it brings a lot of memories, big and small.”

Ali Orr

Orr explains that photographs, paintings, furniture, etc. are all items that make space feel like home. She says these items bring comfort.

“A drawing of a pet is more than a picture, though. We all take pictures of our family members and capture memories, but a drawing brings a pet to life. These drawings have sentimental value and are physical and visual reminders of memories of their pet. I hope that my drawings allow the pet owner to immediately recall the memory."

Ali Orr

Dr. Schweinberg says the process of moving into a long-term nursing care facility requires many substantial adjustments, many of them being difficult to accept.

“It involves not only giving up one’s own home but also giving up many aspects of one’s independence and identity. Because of this, such an adjustment is often accompanied with a significant sense of grief and loss.”

Dr. Schweinberg

Family Can be Frustrated Without Advance Planning

He explains that family members have the challenge of helping their loved ones make this life transition, which is often unwanted and resisted. Schweinberg indicates this is often a frustrating process for the whole family. He encourages preparation in advance as much as possible. 

Meeting with staff at the facility will give the family information and reduce some of the fears that an elderly family member will have when leaving their past life into this new “home.”

“It is extremely important that family members remain supportive, positive and encouraging throughout the process. This includes listening as their loved one talk about what they will miss about their home and the life that they are leaving behind."

Dr. Schweinberg

Schweinberg says this validates the difficult feelings that such a transition into long-term care can bring.

He suggests family members should remain patient and understanding. Their loved one will often be resistant and cynical about the need for long-term health care, be in denial about their health issues, and how they feel about making a big life transition. Planning, in part with the use of photographs and other memories, including pet drawings, can ease this fear many will feel.

“This is a transition for the entire family system, not just for the elderly family member. Typically, the more family members who are involved in preparing for and facilitating this transition, the better the outcome.”

Dr. Schweinberg

The cost of long-term health care is another primary concern for both the elderly family member and the rest of the family. If they had put in place a Long-Term Care Insurance policy before their aging or health event, much of the cost would be paid for, thus reducing the financial pressure on the family. However, no planning was done, and the family ends up in a crisis.

Long-Term Care Insurance Makes it Easier on Everyone 

If a Long-Term Care Insurance policy is not in place, personal income and assets will be used to fund the costs of care services. Health insurance, including Medicare and supplements, will not pay for most long-term health care leaving families to deal with it on their own. Medicaid will pay for long-term health care, but the care recipient must have little or no income and assets to qualify for these benefits.

You might be dealing with older parents right now, but now is the best time to plan for future declining health and aging. The ideal time to obtain coverage is when you are in your 40s or 50s, with most people doing it in their 50s. 

Planning not only ensures the choice of quality care services in the setting you desire, but it protects income and assets and gives loved ones the time to be family instead of caregivers.

1Reimer MA, Slaughter S, Donaldson C, Currie G, Eliasziw M. Special Care Facility Compared with Traditional Environments for Dementia Care: A Longitudinal Study of Quality of Life. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2004;52:1085–1092

2Mitchell SL, Kiely DK, Jones RN, Prigerson H, Volicer L, Teno JM. Advanced Dementia Research in the Nursing Home: The CASCADE Study. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord. 2006;20:166–175.