This Adam Sandler Movie Has Inspired a Method of Dementia Care

One home for people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia is using a method inspired by an Adam Sandler movie to help jog residents’ memories at the start of each day.

In the 2004 film 50 First Dates, actor Adam Sandler’s character creates a video that actress Drew Barrymore (whose character loses her memory each day) plays each morning to remind her who she is and what happened to her. The Hebrew Home at Riverdale in New York City has family members of its residents doing the same thing as Sandler’s character, the Associated Press reports, recording videos of themselves providing messages and anecdotes for the patients to watch every morning.

“[The film] was fluff, but it made me think,`How could that translate to our residents with memory loss?'” Charlotte Dell, director of social services at the home told the AP.

The Associated Press notes that people with Alzheimer’s present differently and that one technique may not work for everyone.

[AP]