Use of Environmental Social Cues with Individuals with Alzheimer's

Question

Answer

Social cues relate to how you personalize a person's environment.  Think about your own bedroom.  What is it within your bedroom, besides your bed and your chest of drawers that makes your bedroom personalized?  Is it your jewelry?  Are there particular pictures that you have hanging on your wall?  Are there personal pictures of your family, friends, or vacations?  They could be your prized possessions.  For an older person, they may have their parents’ dresser.  Familiar objects could be your personal hairbrush or toothbrush.  The social cues are the items that are located within your environment.  Your environment, if you are living in a memory cottage, could be just your room, or if you are in a home, it could be within each room.  What is it that makes that room your room and not someone else's?  In regards to social cues, if someone is having to move from their home that they have lived in for 40 or 50 years into someone else's home or a skilled nursing facility or memory cottage, you will want to personalize that environment with as many social cues as possible so that person feels safe, comfortable, and familiar with those objects within that new environment.