ideas for elderly handicapped person entertainment??

[Bigbartguy]

hi folks

my father has Parkinson's disease and is now confined to a wheelchair. He was a VERY active guy (fixing things, home improvements, fishing, etc) and now is stuck with shaky hands and limited entertainment (except the TV).

I'm trying to think of things to help keep him busy. He cant do any 'detail' things because of his shakiness. We get him out fishing has often as we can, but that's obviously not enough. He pretty much has to watch TV all day, except for when he goes out to tend to his tomato plants.

puzzles are out due to shakiness. He hates them anyway.

I'm just looking for something to help him occupy his time a bit while he's stuck in their family room. He has every WWII dvd that I could find.

does anyone have any ideas?

thanks!

[DinkADunk]

Can he still type or run a video camera (on a tripod) ? If so then he ought to record his thoughts, stories from the past, antedotes, and other things about his life. Most folk's have some fairly interesting stories to tell. My mom died from Parkinsons, she liked to collect crystal which didn't work too well with the shakiness. One thing she liked to do when the Parkinsons was fairly advanced was to stand in front of the house and hit golf balls towards the street. She use to golf a fair bit and was fairly good in her day. The house had an acre front lawn with lots of trees so no chance of her hitting another house. My dad would bring her lots of shag balls and she would have a whack at them - pretty funny, but she enjoyed it.

[fishyguy]

I fully endorse the video taping of your father. We did that with my father when he was ill and treasure every second of video. We stretched over a couple of weekends but we have about 8 hours of interviews where we asked questions and listened to stories going all the way back to his childhood.

As far as the entertainment goes it is tough. My father did not have Parkinsons but his limitations were similar. We did watch a lot of TV. I would rent or buy his favorite shows from his youth or young adulthood to rewatch some of these. His favorites were those Johnny Carson, Tonight Show tapes. He could watch them frequently without getting bored. We also fished, went to movies, and wheeled him around his favorite events, i.e., State Fair, Sport Show, etc...

Good luck and best wishes to your father.