Virtual dementia: Project simulates health problems senior citizens often face

(Note: several weeks ago the Gazette received a press release about the Virtual Dementia Tour, an event sponsored by the Redwood Area Dementia Awareness Network.

What follows doesn't attempt to be an objective article about the event as much as an account of what it was like to actually take part in it.)

What do senior citizens with dementia and other physical and mental conditions feel like?

How do they perceive the world around them? What challenges do they face when they try to do even simple tasks around the house?

To younger or healthier people without those problems, it can be hard to be sympathetic.

"Oh, hurry up, granny," they might think, watching an older woman struggling to sort the socks, or set a table.

I admit I've gotten frustrated or irritated at times dealing with seniors slowed down by physical ailments.

On June 21, I showed up at Garnette Gardens Senior Living in Redwood Falls for my appointment taking the Virtual Dementia Tour.

I walked into an apartment to find some network volunteers waiting in the living room, ready to guide me and through the process.

Thirty participants had signed up for the Virtual Dementia Tour this time around, which the network brings to town at least once a year.

The tour began by putting special plastic inserts in my shoes, with uncomfortable bumps and ridges to mimic what it would feel like to walk around with poor blood circulation in my feet.

Thick gloves came next, with several fingers and toes taped together to mimic having arthritis.

Then I put on special goggles that mimic what you would see if your eyes had macular degeneration.

As it happens, I have a 90-year old friend who has struggled with macular degeneration for the last 15 years or so. He is now legally blind and needs help any time he wants to leave his house.

The goggles did a pretty good job of capturing what he describes how he sees: yellowish and smudged, with the centers dark. He can only see with his peripheral vision, and constantly has to tilt and swivel his head back and forth to see anything.

Finally, the volunteers put a set of headphones over my ears, playing what sounded like muffled background conversations with the occasional door slam or ambulance siren.

Finally, all suited up, I was stationed by a bedroom door. I struggled to hear a volunteer quickly read off instructions for a number of tasks I was supposed to accomplish inside the next room:

? find a pair of pants and put the belt through the loops

? match six pairs of socks

? clear and set a table with silverware and plates

? draw a picture of my family

? find a necktie and put it on

I forgot most of the instructions before I even got inside.

Finally, the volunteer opened the bedroom door, and I wandered in. Instantly I was disoriented from the darkness, lit only by a strobe light and a TV set with the sound turned up loud.

Trying to feel my way around, I stumbled into a bed covered with cloth objects. Guessing that was the socks I was supposed to sort, I did the best I could.

After a couple frustrating minutes, I still couldn't clearly see or feel which cloth objects were clothing, which might be sheets or blankets, and which might be socks.

I finally gave up in disgust and moved onto the next task: trying to set a table.

Through the thick gloves I could barely feel the difference between a knife, a spoon, and a fork. Trying to see the difference was hopeless.

My concentration was thrown off by the blaring TV, and by sudden jolts of gratuitous noise from the headphones.

After successfully sorting the silverware, I tried moving the plates into position - but couldn't see the table was rounded. When I tried putting a plate on what I thought was the "corner", it dropped to the floor.

Next I managed to find the closet. Although I found the belt without too much trouble, trying to see or feel the difference between the shirts and pants on the hangers was beyond me.

By that point, I was ready to be done, too frustrated to continue. I never even attempted the other tasks.

"Get me out of here,"?I said to the volunteer in the room monitoring me. I was beginning to feel claustrophobic from the gloves, goggles, and headphones, and just wanted them off.

Apparently, I wasn't unusual in that.

"Sometimes we have people come out of the testing room in tears," said volunteer Lacey Bruns, LSW.

"This is the world (seniors with physical or mental disabilities) live in all the time. They can't just walk away from it. Even the simplest task can be overwhelming."

Lisa Webster works in the memory care unit at Garnette Gardens. She took the Virtual Dementia Tour to get a better understanding of what her clients' lives are like.

"It was horrible. I kept finding myself stopping in the middle of tasks and moving on to the next one," she said afterward.

"The worst part was the frustration. I tried looking at the instructions on the wall because I couldn't remember what we were supposed to do, but I couldn't read them.

"I knew there was someone else in the room, but I was afraid to ask.

"This will definitely change the way I provide care for my clients," Webster said. "This will help remind me to be more patient with my clients, to break things down into simpler tasks."

The Virtual Dementia Tour isn't necessarily fun, but it is something everyone should try once.