Georgia Students Simulate the Struggles of Dementia

In Georgia, approximately 12% of the population aged 65 and older lives with Alzheimer’s disease, which is a type of dementia.  In 2022, 288,436 deaths among U.S. adults aged 65 and older were attributed to dementia. To educate students on this condition and spread awareness, the Three Rivers Aging Agency hosted a dementia simulation on April 14 in the Campus Center Ballroom.

“My professor wanted us to either participate or observe the simulation,” said Abbie Klein, a participant in the simulation. “I chose to participate because if people have to live through that every day, the best I can do is see what it’s like for ten minutes.”

The simulation brought the circumstances of dementia to life through its equipment and the immersive environment it created.

“We put on equipment to simulate sense deprivation,” said Klein. “We wore thick, oversized gloves that made us lose fine motor skills because the fingers were so big.”

Because dementia may also impact vision and sound interpretation, the simulation also compromised the participant’s ability to see and hear.

“We had to wear glasses that were darkened and blacked out to where I only had a little bit of vision,” said Klein. “We wore headphones that played a really loud recording of muffled voices with random loud sirens and bangs periodically going through them.”

The simulation brought to light how difficult it is to complete everyday tasks with such a condition.

“We also wore plastic inserts in our shoes that had little plastic spikes in them to simulate pins and needles in the feet and not being able to walk very well,” said Klein. “For the actual simulation, they put us in a room and asked us to do simple tasks. But because of the headphones and my lack of vision, I didn’t know what they were asking me to do. It was really difficult to complete tasks. Me and four other students kind of just wandered around the room for about ten minutes just wondering what we were supposed to do.”

Klein states that after the simulation, she will never view dementia, or those living with it, the same way again.
“I was very uneducated on dementia,” said Klein. “I didn’t realize it was as serious as it was. This taught me how to approach people with dementia better and to be more empathetic to what they went through.”