Puzzles for Alzheimer’s Patients and Book for Libraries

By Max Wallack
Puzzles to Remember

PuzzlesToRemember has now distributed over 32,000 puzzles to over 2430 nursing facilities. This includes facilities in every state, six Canadian provinces, plus Aruba, Australia, Colombia, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, and South Africa. There are currently 12 different images available, and new images are being planned for this summer, including my favorite:

Here is a photo of the participants in the Cognitive Therapy Workshop for Seniors in the Gerontoclub at Centro Cultural Club, Lumen A.C., Mexico, as they busily work on one of the Springbok PuzzlesToRemember.

Here is a photo of the same individuals, smiling with a sense of peaceful accomplishment after completing the puzzle:

The book,“Why Did Grandma Put Her Underwear in the Refrigerator? An Explanation of Alzheimer’s Disease for Children,” is now available in English, German, French, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Norwegian, and Chinese.  Japanese, Hebrew, Welsh, Arabic, and Sinhala, are all being developed.

I believe it is important for children to understand Alzheimer's disease so they can still interact lovingly with family members who have this disease. Having grown up as a caregiver to my great grandmother who had Alzheimer's disease, my hope was to provide some helpful coping mechanisms to the many children dealing with Alzheimer's disease among their family members.

If you are associated with a library or a veteran's facility and would like to have a copy of this book to help the children in your area, please contact us at PuzzlesToRemember@gmail.com, and we will do our best to provide you with a free copy.
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Max Wallack is a student at Boston University and a Research Intern in the Molecular Psychiatry and Aging Laboratory in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Boston University School of Medicine.  His great grandmother, Gertrude, suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Max is the founder of  PUZZLES TO REMEMBER. PTR is a project that provides puzzles to nursing homes and veterans institutions that care for Alzheimer's and dementia patients.