Question from Dolores:
How exactly can shelters use people with dementia in shelter work?


Response from Carole Mulliken:
That is the challenge, isn’t it? A good volunteer coordinator has all the skills necessary to do so if willing to try. Every person with dementia has different strengths and deficits, so it is hard to generalize, but I’ll try.

A wise volunteer coordinator is observant. The volunteer coordinator I work for has tried a number of different tasks with me. She has figured out that it will take me a long time to learn anything, and that my capacities are limited. She says, “Carole, I know that you are willing, but not always able. Do you think you could . . .?” I know what I think I am able to do, and I tell her. She knows I am willing to try, and try is what I do. I have pet projects I undertake on my own as well as usual shelter tasks. For example, I am learning clicker training, and I like to experiment with some of the dogs. I will be giving them positive human attention even if I am not successful in training.

There are many shelter tasks that more capable people don’t have the time for, and I have the patience for some of them. I’ve run errands to pick up paint, load up on newspapers at the recycling center, written for a shelter newsletter, made flyers and poster boards and helped with adoptions at PetsMart.

I’ve answered the phone and written down taped messages, unfolded newspapers for the puppy cages, made hand-crafted items for sale, walked dogs, exercised cats in the playroom, washed puppies, made publicity posters for Strut Your Mutt, clipped nails, distributed flyers, rung bells at Christmas to get donations, created an email newsletter, written press releases, developed media contact lists, walked dogs and other things with variable success. Some projects I’ve started I have been unable to finish.

Now, every person with dementia has differing strengths and weaknesses. The things I have done were right for me, but other people will have other abilities. Volunteer coordinators have to feel their way along a relationship with a person with dementia, and some may not have the time or flexibility to do that. I love my volunteer coordinator because she lets me keep trying.

Most people with dementia have short-term memory loss. To them, spoken language can be like cigarette smoke. It comes out in a great cloud, and then, to them it evaporates. Short, simple instructions broken into smaller tasks work best. As people decline, concrete tasks are easiest.

People with dementia have problems with attention deficit. We start things, get diverted, and lose track, leaving things undone. Being diverted by a phone call was how I left a pan of water on the stove too long and welded the pan to the stove. This is not carelessness or apathy. We can usually be redirected successfully, but without redirection we can make messes all by ourselves. Risky tasks should be left for people with full attention ability!

Offering tasks that can be done in a quiet environment at the person’s own speed is most likely to succeed. As a rule, people with dementia require more oversight than other volunteers, and they may need more encouragement. They deal with their own frustrations at their inabilities all the time, and having a “cheerleader” is very helpful.

If a person with dementia can be paired with another understanding volunteer, less supervision is needed. Even though we have had full adult lives, we are like children in that respect. You wouldn’t place responsibility for an animal’s care in the hands of a child, and the same may be true of people with dementia. But animals have so many needs, we can take responsibility for meeting some of them and very much enjoy doing so.