Need activities for isolated grandmother + great aunt struggling with dementia

HI everyone, my nana and my great aunt are identical twins and went from living in a house together (where my nana lived for 50 years, and my great aunt for 20) to a room in my uncles home with his family because they could not take care of themselves.

The room is upstairs and they share it together and refuse to come downstairs because they are scared. When they lived together, they passed the time by organizing things and watching TV for hours and cooking. Now they don't have most of their things, there's no cable upstairs and they cannot be trusted to cook without constant supervision. They both packed bags and have their own personal items, but being in a strange place plus extreme isolation and inactivity is definitely making this a painful situation for both the caregivers (my aunt and uncle) and my nana and my great aunt. They have gotten much worse since the move. While keeping them in their home may have been better comfort wise, we needed to move them temporarily because my uncle is building a second floor onto my nana's home to move his family in and care for them full time. They will be able to move back in in late Spring - so this is temporary, but the inactivity is taking a serious toll on them.

They have access to TV, newspapers, radios, etc. if they just would come downstairs but absolutely refuse to and throw fits if you try to coax them. My uncle and aunt have two young kids so there is only so much energy that can be put in at this moment. The rest of my family is a little useless when it comes to this stuff and living with them right now, while hard, is the best situation available.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to make this easier for everyone? My aunt and uncle live far and I work full-time, so I can only visit once a week. Does anyone have any suggestions for activities, or something to keep them occupied or busy? My family is racking our brains to get them active. I don't mind spending a little bit of money to donate an electronic, but with no cable upstairs and a temporary situation that may not be the best solution.

Thank you for your help! Sending my love to everyone dealing with something like this, I never imagined in a hundred years how painful this struggle would be and I wouldn't wish it on anyone in the world.

Submitted February 28, 2017 at 09:13AM by 02343 http://ift.tt/2m2Ludx