Dallas senior living center employees experience life as a dementia patient through groundbreaking simulator
DALLAS – About 55 million people worldwide live with dementia, and six million people in the United States have Alzheimer's disease, according to the World Health Organization.
Hundreds of employees at a North Texas senior living center are getting to experience what it's like to live with the disease through a groundbreaking dementia simulator.
It's an eye-opening experiment inside the walls of CC Young Senior Living Center in Dallas. Dr. Hayley Moseley took employees through the simulator of what it's like to complete everyday tasks with dementia.
"Until you get that heart connection until you really feel what it feels like to have dementia, you may never truly understand," Moseley said.
Moseley took all 350 employees through the dementia simulator.
The dementia simulator affects three senses. One of them is sight. People with Alzheimer's disease typically experience decreased peripheral vision, and glasses simulate that.
The second sense the simulator alters is touch.
"They might have a hard time picking things up. People with dementia have decreased tactile stimulation and sometimes poor fine motor skills, so we're putting on these double-thick gloves, and these double-knit gloves make it hard to pick things up," Moseley said.
Hearing is the third sense the simulator affects.
"Almost everyone with dementia has problems processing," Moseley said. "When you ask them to do something, it'll take them a minute to understand and figure out how to make that happen."
Employees put on headphones and hear a series of different distractions in each ear while trying to do four tasks in three minutes.
Moseley gave an employee a list of these specific tasks: "Find the black shirt. Button two buttons and fold it. Count 37 cents and put it in a coin purse. Take your Tuesday noon pill and feed the dog," Moseley said.
CC Young administrator of assisted living and memory support Nena Paris went through the simulator.
"It gives me chills," Paris said. "Going through it, it will give everyone more empathy and understanding and patience."
Monica Terrill also went behind the curtain to learn what it's like to live with dementia.
"It was so overwhelming," Terrill said. "My mom actually was diagnosed about 20 years ago."
Her mom Ruthe is a resident at CC Young and lives with advanced Alzheimer's disease.
"This is a very cruel disease," Terrill said. "It's very challenging because it still leaves for me something of a mystery. Every day when I go, and I ring the bell, I never know what I'm going to get."
Terrill has seen her 89-year-old mother quickly deteriorate.
"Her short-term memory is gone. I literally can be sitting with her for an hour, get up and step away for maybe two minutes, come back in, and she does not remember that I've been there," Terrill said.
Ruthe's condition affects the entire family, including her husband of 58 years, Louie. Terrill tries to remain positive and cherish every moment she has with her mom.
"These last number of years have been difficult as a daughter, but there's been these moments that I've felt so connected to her in ways that I never have," Terrill said.
Terrill better understands her mother's disease through the simulator as she gains insight and awareness of the state Ruthe lives in every minute of the day.