Where can I find activities and stimulation for a blind and deaf elderly person?

Go online and look for senior centers in your area. You may also find an adult daycare program that she would have to pay to go to, but it would get her out a few days a week. You may also find there are people in your area that will be a companion for an elderly person a few hours a week. Some volunteer their time, and others will ask for a small fee. They may even take her out to lunch or shopping. If you do have a senior center near you, they will know how to get you in touch with all the local senior services. Hope this helps.

find some things that are tactile for her... check with the Association for the blind. You could find things that smell good. My kids had scratch and sniff books. Or just make a game of smelling things that might bring back memories such as peppermint, lilac's, vanilla. Did she enjoy baking??? Let her knead some bread dough, or mix up banana bread. take care..

Does she have a caregiver that comes? How about massage...mmmmm that should feel good to anyone at any age! Going out for mani's and pedi's mmmmm that always feels good. Bravo that is she that old and is still getting along...power to her!

Is she completely blind and or deaf? If she has any residual hearing or sight, the National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped can provide books and audio, along with adaptive equipment.

Helen Keller had both problems. I'd start teaching her tactile sign language or braille. Where was the planning while she was GOING blind? or did this happen with the brain tumor? Anyway, what a predicament.

Massage chair pads, foot massage units, foot bath units, perhaps a fuzzy animal to pet. Warm breezes, perhaps trip to the ocean. Can she smell? Different smells using essential oils. Warm or cool washcloth with lemon or lavender or rose essential oil. YUM.

Once you find a thread of interest, build on it. Like a lap dog or calm cat. If she can still swallow, then different textures to the foods. I think a good way to go out is to totally wallow in mangos, maybe with coconut sauce.

Strange nobody ever brings up drugs, but what the heck. Medical marijuana brownie. If she understands it is a "trip" and not her going totally insane. A frosty pina colada or mai tai.

She might react to rhythms...Remo makes a table drum. did you know there is a professional percussionist who is entirely deaf? Makes you wonder at how adaptive humans are.

There are some cool mess-free crafts out there. How about PlayFoam, I bet you can by it at any toy store. Can she crochet?
Just a thought

And why, one might ask, is a 92 year old woman who is both blind and deaf...LIVING ALONE????? Guess you aren't checking back to see your responses. For pete's sake, move her in with you or you in with her. Boredom is not what I would put on high priority for your mother.

Well, I don't really have an answer, just another tweak to this question. My mother is 96, just about blind and almost completely deaf. Unfortunately she is also rather senile. Your mother really shouldn't be living alone, but I image she likes her independence. That's what kept my mother on her own until I deemed it unsafe (an incident with the stove). Since she has moved in with my husband and myself we have found it difficult to keep her occupied. So far the big winners are our visiting grandchildren and a litter of kittens my adult daughter is bottle feeding. She does enjoy sitting out when the weather is good, marveling at how good the sun and breeze feels on her skin. We continue to try to find things that involve smell, touch and taste. All of the suggestions involving those senses are right on. How about gardening, maybe herbs in pots for the kitchen. If crocheting or knitting is too difficult, how about spool-knitting. It might be easier than regular knitting and the long thin tubes can be wound into hotplates or small mats so it would have a productive outcome. I find that having my mother living with me is very similar to being home when my children were very young.

where can find places to go? or things to do for the deaf and blind?

I am working in a care home as an activities coordinator. One of the residents is almost blind and deaf. She plays volleyball with balloon! She can hardly see but with her fingers she realize where the balloon is!

Some excellent suggestions.Thank you everyone.I think Im just about to let my very grumpy totally blind 85 yr old grandad move in with me.I need all the suggestions I can get as he never shuts up!
He has hearing aids and Ill end up with ear muffs...

I am an Activities Director at a long term care facility and I, too, am looking for things to keep our residents from becoming bored. We have visitors and we use lotions, and go outside, etc, but I, like Carole, am looking for something for these folks to do with all the hours when someone is not with them. We are also dealing with the difficulty of learning something new without being able to tell them (can't hear) and can't see. Often their tactile sense has diminished also. They don't know braille. I've tried writing simple notes with raised fun-foam letters. They couldn't understand. Any thoughts??? Thank you!

My Mom is 94 and totally blind and deaf. She lived with us for 15 years, but now has some care needs that I cannot manage with my fragile back. We just got her into an adult family home. The adjustment has been hard for her since, without sight, she needs to be oriented to the new living situation by feel only. We have communicated with her for years with large magnet letters so I have bought a set for the care givers. This way of communicating is good for my mom's memory and also helps her stay in touch with what's happening in the world. It takes some time on the care givers part but keeps the patient healthy. We also got her a plastic weaving set to make pot holders on (you can find them in craft or toy stores). Mom needs to be monitored to make sure she's doing it correctly, but loves being busy and giving the potholders as gifts. I'm still looking for other ideas and will check back to see what you have to share.

I am in the same predicament. I am Activities Co-ordinator in a boarding hospital. The patient who is practically blind joins in with keep fit exercise class twice a week. She can catch and throw a soft ball etc but I would like to entertain her with some arts and crafts. Any suggestions? She persists that she can't knit, paint, garden and various other things, but there must be something. I did think about musical instruments, I have a few mini versions of some. I will be doing a smelling game/test with her soon. Any other ideas? Thanks

Ask for her help in folding washcloths - they're small enough to handle easily and she might enjoy the tactile sensations plus it gives a feeling of helping the household. I do that with my mom who's 106, low vision and hearing is difficult even with two aids. It is a challenge to find activities when the hands, the eyes and the ears are not working at their best but keep trying. There are many internet radio stations that stream a genre of music she might enjoy - we keep ours on a Sinatra station or another from the UK featuring 40s music. The best is a willing family member or volunteer who'll simply sit and talk - maybe take some of her old pictures and describe them to her. My mom remembers the pictures eve though she can't see them but enjoys anyone who'll take time to sit, go thru and describe them. Even with dementia there are many intact memories -she surprised me daily on both the up and the down side of dementia. As i say the memories are there but she's lost the index card so 1925 is not much different than 2012. Good luck - I'm interested in ideas also so hope some others come forward with things that work in their situation.

Have her try a good ALF, just for one month. We told mom to think of it like going on a cruise. She packed for a month, took her bed and favorite chair. She met friends from high school and the old neighborhood. She was not lonely or bored any more. She decided to stay. She is safe and happy.

My Grandpa just moved in with us and I had similar questions. I remember him just a few years ago being very independent, active, strong, and happy. Then diabetes ruined his health. He is blind now, and has many other health problems associated with diabetes. It stole his identity and now he seems smaller, fragile, needs assistance even to go to the washroom. He is so unhappy, and I feel sad for him. He is young, (69) but diabetes aged him abruptly and drastically as of two years ago. I'm still hoping for some cure to get him back to his formal state and he is waiting. I think that may not happen but I will not give up hope as long as he doesn't. Anyway, he loves playing a game, something like volleyball with balloons, everyone gets involved even the rest of my older brothers and sisters, and we do this anywhere even in the living room while he sits on the sofa. It keeps him focused and i think it makes him sharper. I still look for new things to do with him that he may enjoy, and I appreciate all the suggestions I have found here.

May I interject to some of the less helpful responses on here? My mother-in-law is 86 and deaf/blind, it isn't always possible or practical to move people into your own home in order to care for them, i.e. if you have to work for a living, there is no recompense to help financially if you give up work, she may not want to move from her own home, a lot of elderly refuse to move in with relatives for many reasons, it is also possible that due to several factors during childhood, it is the last thing you want to have your parent living with you, not everyone has had the ideal parents raising them, it is unfair to try and reprimand someone whose circumstance you know nothing about, suffice that they are trying to deal with a very dfificult situation rather than put their elderly into a home out of the way completely!!!!!

I am also in the same situation. My mother is 80 & she is deaf since 5 and blind since 60. She lives with me & I am also disabled. Lucky it is not my hearing or sight but physical. I know my mother is bored & I don't know what to do to occupy her time. When I am cooking or baking I have her mix the batter. She needs more, it is starting to affect her mind, the inactivity. Any ideas?

I am happy to know that I am not the only one in this situation. My husband is 80 and has very little hearing or vision. I so often feel that I am failing, because I can't think of things to keep him motivated. Now I don't feel so bad, since even the professionals are challenged. Realistically, I know this is a universal issue, but I can't help but feel sorry for him. Bless his heart, he never complains, except that he can't do more for me. It would be wonderful if "social security" offered us both a social and secure lifestyle, thus a happier and healthier life.

My husband and I will soon be caregivers for his deaf-blind brother. (Provided the institution he is in will release him to us. They are making it very difficult, I think, so they can get his check every month). So, where do we go for tactile sign language classes? Are there community agencies that will help?

as a deafblind individual being her age of 92 it will be hard to teach her american sign language tactualy or not as well as braille due to both of those being brand new communication forms she would need to learn. if she lives alone and still has that independence more power to her! i completley understand how hard it is to find activites for seniors whom are deafblind as that is my main client base. i would suggest purley tactile things and as someone else said something using her residual senses to her advantage... if she has some residual hearing- anything to do with sound or music, if she has residual vision adapt activites to her visual needs for example: if she has light perseption only= create a dark room with fiber or led lights and it could be very relaxing, if she has more usable vision than keep adapting. if she is total total something textured like a sand and water table or floam or even clay! another helpfull thing is to look up making a calender system so she knows what her day is going to look like and she wont be bored becasue she can anticipate whats coming next and when she has that doctors appointment ect.. you can even make that tactile by using puff paint so everyting is raised , and or different textures or shapes she can feel for different activites during the day!.. hope this helps some. i am a trained deafblind intervenor

as far as places to go or things to do for the deafblind it all depends where you live!!!

I have searched this site and many others for inspiration on how to occupy my mother. Playing games with her or taking her out for walks or even folding laundry are common suggestions, but at best occupy less than an hour of her day, and at worst she rejects the whole idea before we even begin. She is not interested in talking books any more, and it is hard to find simple PG rated stories that she can still follow although she used to enjoy them years ago. TV is definitely out unless I can find a documentary and there are is not much worth tuning in to.
It is sad that her only outlet has become moving from bed to chair and back again, with a little music along the way (as long as she will keep her hearing aids in anyway)

I am trying to find an assisted living site for my father who is Deaf/Blind , I want him closer to me in Austin Texas. Please help us.

95 year old man has dementia, blind and can hardly hear. He has anxiety due to not seeing. I'm his caregiver and it is difficult as he wants me with him every minute of the day. A hired person from a agency is with him every night so I can get some sleep. He wakes up and demands that I get up also. What can I do. These people do not put their family member in a home.

Suggestions:
1. If the person is not completely deaf, a good set of headphones can make listening to music or audio books enjoyable again. Sennheiser is one brand we use.
2. Chores to help around the house: folding laundry, polishing silver, kneading bread, stringing beans, sorting socks by feel, brushing pets, etc.
3. Dictating knowledge into a recording device: family recipes, geneology information, childhood memories, gardening tips, life lessons, advice for young people, singing songs from their youth, etc.
4. tactile crafts such as knitting, weaving, macrame, clay work, paying musical instrument into a recording software, etc.