Today's funny: Cable Confabulation

[politicat]

3. I agree.

In a lot of ways, TV is both a carrot and stick. Because Gran's version of dementia took away the circuit between "I want to do $Action" and doing $Action, she has limited to negative motivation and self-regulation. Without prompts, she won't do anything at all (though great-and-wonderful Oz, she will complain about being bored...). My job as her responsible party is not to make her decisions for her (except when necessary or those beyond her abilities) but to provide her with the tools to re-route around that failed circuit. While her ability to learn is limited now, I actually enjoy seeing the attempts at rerouting, which her confabulation was. She wants something. She is trying to find ways to make it happen, even of those means are unworkable. We have given her a route to obtaining her goals and the tools to make that possible. She has moderate dementia, not profound, so she needs to maximize what she has as long as she has it. And that means working on problems, not just expecting change without articulating and working it.

This may be the motivation for working on something she hasn't managed yet -- 1) making phone calls (in six months, she has not made any call at all); 2) being vigilant about her walker and watching her sit/stand protocol; and 3) engaging with the community. Or not.