When a loved one starts to show signs of neurodegeneration as a result of diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia, family members and close friends are often thrust into the role of caregiver with no professional training.
The sudden shift can put extreme stress on those caregivers and ultimately strain the relationship between them and their loved ones. To ease the transition, Layne Mayer and Katherine Magee have launched VISIT, a bimonthly activity kit and online platform that facilitates engagement and positive interactions.
“With no pharmaceutical solution or major clinical trials that have been successful, there has really been a lot of attention on the benefits of social and cognitive stimulation to improve the quality of life, not only for the person with dementia but for the caregiver as well,” Mayer told Rhode Island Inno.
Mayer got the idea for VISIT from her mother, who pioneered social cognitive therapy for people with cognitive decline in the 1990s by focusing on therapeutic solutions during a time when most only focused on pharmaceutical or medical solutions.
Mayer wanted to bottle her mother’s special recipe and teach others how to interact positively with family members with dementia. Mayer met Magee at work, and the multi-generational duo eventually decided to team up to launch their business.
VISIT’s subscription kit features activities and games that focus on the proven social and cognitive engagement techniques of Mayer’s mother, Dr. Lynn Serper; sensory stimulation; and creative expression. Activities include conversation-starting connection, memory games, puzzles, art activities and sensory items like clay.
Each kit has a different theme. The kits not only include a variety of activities, but also show people how to use those activities and customize them to their loved one’s personal history, abilities and mood.
“The activities include touch and feel, conversations about music, movies and things that people can relate to from their long-term memories and discuss in their lives,” Mageesaid. “This has been proven to be beneficial for people living with dementia.”
Mayer and Magee also said they are building out an online subscriber portal with additional content related to the kit they send to users.
The two first started conducting user testing and research in mid-2019. At the end of last year, they conducted beta testing with 20 families across the country and received extremely positive feedback, they said.
A veteran of Social Enterprise Greenhouse and MassChallenge Rhode Island, VISIT is currently in the process of raising a round of financing from friends and family. The team plans to launch pre-orders in mid-March, with the hope of gaining 100 to 200 customers within the first six months.
Next year, Mayer and Magee hope to be able to keep building out their online portal and integrate music and sound into their activities. They also plan to collect customer feedback and further enhance the product.
The opportunity is clearly large, with 16 million family and friends currently caring for loved ones with dementia in the U.S. — and Mayer and Magee say the market is wide open, relatively untapped and constantly growing.
Ultimately, though, the two know how difficult it can be for someone who just realized their parent or grandparent is starting to develop signs of dementia. Their goal is to remove some of the mystery by adding some guidance to make a difficult situation a little bit easier.
“We are like a recipe kit, delivering all the ingredients and guidance you need for a productive and rewarding visit,” Mayer said.
Bram Berkowitz is a contributing writer for Rhode Island Inno.
