Zinnia TV: Therapeutic Dementia-Friendly Videos

Allyson Schrier joins Suzanne to talk about Zinnia TV, a therapeutic caregiving tool. It's an app created especially for people in the progressive stage of Alzheimer's or dementia. So many caregivers are trying to do their best for their senior loved ones when their mind is working in a very different way. It's an overwhelming situation. Allyson talks about the experience of caring for her husband who, after several years trying to find out what was going on, was diagnosed in 2012 with frontotemporal dementia at age 47, which has been in the news a lot lately, as Bruce Willis was recently diagnosed with it. Allyson's kids were 12 and 15 at the time. It changed his personality, made him less connected to others and much different than the kind, loving husband he'd been. Regular TV and YouTube don't engage well with those in middle or late stages of dementia. Allyson realized that slower-paced visuals, with music instead of words, or with the words captioned, would be better. Zinnia TV is co-founded by Allyson and Frank Lee, a former Product Designer at Apple. Zinnia TV subscriptions are just $6.99/month, or $69.99/year, with a two-week free trial. Learn more at Zinnia TV.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.