A Simple Reminder Tool for Dementia That’s Helping My Mom Stay on Track

Transcript of Interview: “A Simple Reminder Tool for Dementia That’s Helping My Mom Stay on Track”

**Mike Barnes:** I think a lot of us run into the problem with our aging parents, where they’re kind of forgetting things. They don’t remember everything, whether they have dementia or not, and we need to remind them about things. Here’s a good way to do it.

**Kim Barnes:** Well, and don’t you think that a lot of times too, if you think about it as you get older, a lot of the days sort of they’re the same.

Yeah. You do a lot of the same things every day, and so sometimes it’s hard to know, is today Tuesday the day I’m gonna the dentist store? Is it Friday? just because that’s just the way our lives are. So today we’re gonna talk to Tyler Zanini from Memoryboard. Thanks so much for being with us, Tyler.

And I think that when we’re trying to help our parents remember things, and I’ve been doing this with my mom, we’ve tried sticky notes, we’ve tried putting it on a pad of paper. We could, we’ve not tried a whiteboard ’cause I just don’t think that would work with my mom. But I, that’s what we hear people using our whiteboards or sticky notes or things like that.

And a lot of times. Those are, they’re just hard to keep updated. And so I love and have been using the Memoryboard with my mom because it just, it’s a fixed object and it’s just, everything’s right there.

**Tyler Zanini:** Yeah. And Kim and Mike, thank you so much for, having me on. I think it’s really amazing. we started this company almost two years ago and you were one, one of the first people we reached out to just to get your thoughts and your expertise and, if you thought this could be a helpful tool and kind of fast forward, here we are and, Memoryboards, a real thing.

we started Memoryboard from my family’s personal experience, my grandmother had. Vascular dementia for a number of years. My father-in-law, his mom had Alzheimer’s for 15 years, and we just wanted a really simple way to communicate, stay in touch, share messages, updates, check-ins, ultimately to give everybody a little bit of connection and peace of mind.

I have the Memoryboard here. I’ll Show it off. So it’s really about, simple one, one way messaging Where. Through an app on your phone, family members and caregivers can send reminders, messages, updates, check-ins. You can kind of schedule things.

So you can kind of set a start time and end time, repetition. maybe there’s a weekly appointment that you wanna make sure is gonna always on there, on Wednesdays, and you can kind of control everything from the app. So at any point you can come in. Add, remove, delete, update, ultimately to really allow you and your loved one to kind of be a little bit more connected.

Give everybody a little bit more peace of mind.

**Mike Barnes:** Yeah. Well, that’s what Kim does early in the morning where she get reminds her mom about wearing compression socks.

**Kim Barnes:** Right. But I

**Mike Barnes:** don’t have, but it’s, only in the morning.

**Kim Barnes:** Well, and it’s good because I don’t have to get up to call her to remind her.

Right. And I think that’s one of the things that’s. that’s really handy about this too, is that I don’t have a lot of the times when she had a dentist appointment or a hair appointment is every Friday at 1130. I would actually have a note on my, com calendar Yeah. To remind her that she has an appointment at 11, at 1115.

Call mom to let her know. Well, did I always remember? No. Would I be in a meeting sometimes? Yes. And so that, those reminders would get forgotten. But now I have it on the, I can just go on my, the, I’ve got the app on my phone. And I can say, mom, you’re going to the dentist today, be downstairs at seven o’clock, at one o’clock.

And I love that. It can be those one time reminders for a special event or I have some, like every morning at nine 30 ish until about 10 15, it says exercise class at 10:00 AM and that way it’s not gonna be there at two in the afternoon where it might be confusing to her. It’s just gonna be on.

At that time when she needs to go down there. Yeah. And one of the ones that I share all the time, which I think is funny, is that one of the biggest ones is are you wearing your compression socks? And I have that come on every day from eight. Seven 15 until about nine 10. And it, and what’ll, what’s funny is that she’ll often call me and let me know Yep.

I’m wearing my compression socks uhhuh. because she just wants to know. So that way I know that she’s seeing it and it’s been so useful. Those are the ways I’m using it. And I forget about the photos sometimes. I think that would be a really handy one. But, like, write this very second on her board, it’s gonna say.

Because she has a, love hate relationship with the thermostat in her apartment and it’s like this game that she plays, but it just says, check the thermostat. If you’re cold, the top number is what you want it to be. And the bottom number is what it really is. Just again, those things that she might Yes, that little trigger, that reminder.

**Mike Barnes:** Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Which we all do. But I know you see that a lot and you’re hearing some great stories about people who love to use this.

**Tyler Zanini:** Yeah. And that’s what’s amazing is just all the different ways that kind of people are using it. I think, you know what we love to hear, knowing that it’s giving everybody a little bit better of peace of mind and connection, but the fact that we hear loved ones are attending more events because of Memoryboard.

whether you’re a 10 minute drive away or, a six hour plane ride. The fact that you can say, Hey mom, hey dad, there’s this activity going on, down the hall in the community room, or this, there’s this event that you might like to attend. they’re telling us that loved ones are attending more events because they’re on, Memoryboard.

Or, a lot of times there’s less of those, anxious kind of stressed phone calls of, Hey, what are we doing today? What’s the schedule? What time are you picking me up? There’s less of those kinda anxious phone calls going on. But then even those, simple check-ins we heard, there was a woman who earlier this week sent us a note.

About how her mom says, she feels like her family’s in the room with her because of Memoryboard and that she doesn’t feel so lonely anymore because of Memoryboard. So things like that are just, I mean, in, in incredibly touching and, we’re super grateful that we can be a small part of, families kind of caregiving journey and a small part of kind of helping make their lives a little bit easier.

**Kim Barnes:** Yeah,

Especially when you see a message from your loved one, especially, when you see those pictures too, that really, yeah. Helps people feel very connected.

**Mike Barnes:** Yeah, and I know Kim has seen it firsthand that it’s very simple to use, especially with the app, but tell everybody how easy it is to set up.

**Tyler Zanini:** Yeah, absolutely. And that, I think that’s kinda the biggest, the, key thing for us is the simplicity and the ease of use. That’s the thing that continues to kind of come up. It’s just how easy of a tool it is. And, when we were kind of thinking about this, for our own family and what we wanted to have, it was really about something that for, the loved one who’s, 80 or 90 years old.

They don’t need to manage a new device. They don’t need to, charge a technology switch between apps, anything like that. For someone who’s, for the loved one, the person with memory loss, they just need to look at it throughout the day. So you’re gonna set it up in the place that they spend, most of their time, whether it’s, in a living room or a family room.

It’s always plugged in. It’s always connected to wifi, and then everything’s kind of controlled remotely through the app. And then setup is, simple as well. It’s really just, your, there’s a five digit code that appears on the Memoryboard. You enter that into your app and then the app and the Memoryboard are connected, and then you can share invites with other members of the family.

Yeah, so we call that the care circle, where you can have an unlimited number of people in the care circle, who can send messages and photos to the Memoryboard,

**Kim Barnes:** right? So you just need wifi. Right,

**Tyler Zanini:** exactly. Yeah. Yeah. For your loved one. Yeah. Your loved one doesn’t need a smartphone, doesn’t need, doesn’t need to worry about charging it.

They just need a stable wifi connection.

**Kim Barnes:** And it is good. My brother will send messages, I send messages, and so it’s nice that multiple people can be, have that input.

**Mike Barnes:** Yeah. And I know it’s designed for people who have dementia, Alzheimer’s, but it doesn’t have to be that way because I know my dad’s 88, he sharpens attack still, but I think this could help him.

I think I want to get one for him so that my sister and I can send him reminders.

**Tyler Zanini:** Yeah. And that’s one of the most amazing things is the, just the range of people who have reached out to us And are using Memoryboard today for different things from autism to Parkinson’s to A DHD. we also have, people using it with young kids who don’t have cell phones yet.

But even we’ve had people who own factories reach out and they’re using it on the factory floor or fitness studios using it to welcome. Welcome new members. So the range of kinda different use cases we’ve really been surprised about. and I think that’ll only continue.

**Kim Barnes:** Yeah. People get pretty creative sometimes with how they might use it.

**Tyler Zanini:** yeah,

**Kim Barnes:** One of the things that I think about too is that while, potentially having a whiteboard or sticky notes can be a way to communicate or leave those reminders, it requires. Either me there to do it, to write it out, or me having to instruct my mom to write exactly what she needs to write.

And, we joke that sometimes I’ll say, okay, mom, write this note down. And I’ll say, well, what did, what’d you write down? And she’ll just say, Kimberly. And I’m like, okay. That’s not probably gonna, like tomorrow, that’s not gonna really help, what, that means. Like whether it’s text that to me or whatever.

So a lot of times that just takes that extra burden off of either having to go in person Yeah. To fill those out for you. Or to, be able for, to try to have them fill it out if they can’t read their handwriting or, those kinds of things. Yeah. And I saw somebody even just this week who asked a question about.

they live in a c their parent lives in a community and they, get the monthly calendar. That just is very overwhelming to look at all the activities. Yeah. And how might they use something like this to give them sort of, whether it’s the daily things or just maybe the important ones.

I have, one for exercise, I have one for. She knows the MO when the movies are Yeah. things like that. But you know, those, if you wanted to say, Rummy Cube at two 30, those kinds of things, it could be really helpful for just taking away that overwhelm.

And, I think it is hard sometimes because as I was mentioning that, a lot of times as they, get older and they’re retired and they.

Every, a lot of days kind of are similar. Everybody seems the same, And so is today the best appointment or was that, is that tomorrow? Yeah.

**Mike Barnes:** it’s just a good way to remind them.

**Kim Barnes:** Right. So I think, and I, love the fact that it’s just really designed to be simple. It’s not trying to be 17 different kinds of.

Tools, if you will, just really has very specific use.

**Tyler Zanini:** Yeah. And, Kim, I think that’s, what a lot of people kinda say is, you have a calendar, let’s say, on your, on your fridge, in your kitchen, but the kind of days start to not really matter too much. It’s really about what’s gonna happening today.

And if you’re looking at a full calendar, it can get very confusing very, quickly. So with the Memoryboard, it’s. Sure you can kind of show messages and you can schedule things four days into, the future. But I think for a lot of people it’s really about like, here’s the two to three to four things that you have going on today.

So you kind of know what that kind of daily, schedule is and that, daily planner is. And the goal is really also to kind of. the, one of the reasons we started it was really to kind of digitize the sticky note or digitize the whiteboard. Keeping things super simple so that there’s really only one thing ever showing at a time.

And because it’s always changing, I think for, for the, for our loved ones, there’s more reason to kind of look at it. I think we’ve been really surprised about, we’ve heard stories from families where they kind of come and tell us that. If they don’t put something on the Memoryboard, their loved one is coming to them and saying, where’s my message?

Where’s the, where’s the agenda? What’s going on today? Like, why haven’t you put, something on the Memoryboard? So Sure. We love hearing stories like that.

**Mike Barnes:** Yeah.

**Kim Barnes:** Right. Yeah. My mom will say, yeah, put that on the Memoryboard. Would I try to remind your

**Mike Barnes:** about, because they love it so much. I know that some people, and I’ve tried it with my dad, who’s 88, send texts or send emails and number one, sometimes he misses ’em.

Whenever I see him, I check his text and he is got like 47 missed texts. So I was like, dad, you’re missing. But the fact that, okay, he may see it once and he looks at it at 9:00 AM but then he doesn’t look back the rest of the day and it hard to remember it, but if it’s always there and flying through the, Memoryboard So he can see it the rest of the day. It just helps The, day run smoother in so many ways.

**Kim Barnes:** Yeah, Well and keeps the things that are front, top of mind. Yeah. That are the things that, like the com, the exercise class doesn’t come on in the afternoon.

**Mike Barnes:** Right.

**Kim Barnes:** When that would be just confusing to see ’cause that would be for tomorrow, but it just shows things that are, right in front of you.

Exactly. Or those little reminders like you showed, when you showed the Memoryboard about, drink more water, those kinds, you can pick those sort of just passive reminders as well. really has been something that has been beneficial for our family For sure.

**Tyler Zanini:** Yeah, and then you know who amongst us hasn’t missed a text message or an email.

And just having it kind of always there and kind of always present I think is really helpful. And that’s another kinda interesting thing where, you know, a lot of people will say, oh, my loved one has a phone. Do you think Memoryboard is, a good tool for me? And absolutely. we know a lot of times the loved one either.

Misplaces the phone, they forget to charge it. A lot of people tell us they, they will, they forget to hang it up from the prior call. So it’s just still going, and you can’t kind of give ’em another, you can’t kinda reach them. Yep. so even though you have a phone, I think there’s a lot of value to just having, like you said, the most important information, kind of always on, always kind of displayed.

**Kim Barnes:** Well, and a phone screen is this big. That’s right. I mean, it’s small and the Memoryboard’s a little bit is bigger and a

little

**Mike Barnes:** bit

**Kim Barnes:** bigger. Bolder

Helps,

**Mike Barnes:** again, helps to remind them what’s going on.

yeah,

**Tyler Zanini:** yeah,

Exactly right.

**Mike Barnes:** well, Tyler, we’re so glad that you put this all together because it just makes everything so much easier in so many ways.

Not only for the aging parents, but for us.

**Kim Barnes:** Well, and for maybe for each, for their, for each other, the

**Mike Barnes:** individual,

**Kim Barnes:** for your

**Mike Barnes:** families. Yeah. I get one for you.

**Tyler Zanini:** Yeah, that, I mean, well we use it now with my family and, my family we’re sharing updates kind of throughout and it’s funny, my mom is not good, with using her phone generally.

So for her, the Memoryboard is a really good replacement. Where now she’ll, we’ll send her something and she’ll always text me right away, be like, I love that photo. I love that message. Like, thank you so much. And it’s actually keeping us more connected than we’ve ever been.

**Kim Barnes:** Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome.

Well, thank you for sharing.

**Tyler Zanini:** Yeah, thank you both. I really appreciate you having me on and again, all the help over the years.

**Mike Barnes:** Thank you. I, think what we’re learning here, and we already know this, but it’s just more, emphasis on it, is that it’s hard to remember everything. There’s so much going on.

I don’t care whether you’re in your thirties, your forties, your fifties, you’re up, you’re in your eighties. There’s so much going on, and if you have something that can help you remember what’s going on every day, it just makes everything so much better for everyone.

**Kim Barnes:** That’s right.

**Mike Barnes:** Especially you.

**Kim Barnes:** That’s right.

**Mike Barnes:** Right. If there’s any other topics you’d like us to discuss, please let us know. Parenting, aging parents.

*This transcript is auto-generated. Please excuse any typos or mistakes.