Living with dementia: How secure units are bringing comfort to some families on P.E.I.

It's difficult to tell exactly what Michael MacAdam is thinking or feeling when he picks up a purple bouncy ball and tosses it into a basket on the floor of his room in a Charlottetown seniors' home.

But it's easy to imagine him thinking back to the days when he played and coached basketball.

Two points! MacAdam wins the game.

"He's content here, he's safe here," said his sister, Nora Wotton. "We're not worried about what he might be doing, so we're very content that he's here."

MacAdam, 66, is one of 11 residents in the new secure unit for people living with dementia at the Garden Home.

It's just one of many seniors' homes with secure units on P.E.I. as the population ages and the demand for dementia care increases. 

The secure wing at the Garden Home is called Mapleview. The doors to the wing are locked and the people living there can't come and go as freely as the other residents. That's because the residents could be a risk to themselves if they wandered outside on their own.

"There's a need to have secure units and I'm glad we are a part of that team, that we're able to offer what is needed. So I'm very proud of that," said Angela Boudreau, the activities co-ordinator at Garden Home.

"We're getting to know our folks and the triggers that they might have and things that we're able to do so it's moving along nicely."

Boudreau said staff are always nearby and residents can still participate in social events such as music, exercise and baking.

"A lot of our ladies still like to have input in our baking," she said. "Sometimes our gentlemen like to hang around the television especially when we were going through the Olympics. And some like to go out for a drive and a lot of people like the music."

Special training is required to care for people living with dementia, Boudreau said.

"You sort of go in to their reality at that point in time, so I mean we don't say things like, 'You're already home'…. It's more like, 'Oh tell me a little bit about your home,' you know, just sort of redirecting and offering that cup of tea."

That's comforting for family members like Wotton. She and MacAdam grew up together in Charlottetown as two of nine children. Their father died when they were kids. MacAdam, the second oldest, often looked after his younger siblings, including Wotton.

Now she and her siblings are returning the favour, visiting MacAdam in the secure unit a few times a week and taking him for a walk or drive. Wotton said MacAdam still recognizes his siblings, even those who live abroad, and is interested in hearing about their lives.

"He'll try to communicate something to me. Often his sentences are disjointed. He can't often really complete a thought. But we have nice conversations, actually."

MacAdam never married or had kids of his own. He graduated from UPEI with a physics degree in 1976. Along with coaching at Laval in Quebec, he worked for Basketball Canada in British Columbia. Wotton said he'll still draw up plays in his room at the Garden Home.

MacAdam moved back to P.E.I. in 2013 and lived with his mother the last year of her life. 

About two years ago his family noticed he was becoming more forgetful, possibly due to a stroke. He started to become paranoid, Wotton said.

He was later diagnosed with vascular dementia. 

"I've just accepted it. This is the way it is, and so I'm actually quite fine with it," Wotton said.

"He did go through a spell where I don't know what happened, but he was totally non-responsive for about two days and that was quite upsetting because I could see him disappearing. But in general …. this is Michael, so I'm OK with that. He seems very content here for the most part."

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