Zinnia videos are powerful tools for:

• Creating connections
• Setting the tone
• Providing ease and calm
• Reducing agitation
• Fostering community, joy and a sense of accomplishment
• Encouraging participation in ADLs

Creating Connections

Benefits of watching Zinnia together:

• The care partner gets to know a resident better.
• The resident regains a connection with who they are/ who they have been.
• Provides new opportunities for communication between staff and resident.

Selecting What to Watch:

• Best of all is when the resident can self-select or assist in the selection of the videos. Scroll through the All Day Mix or Interests channel allowing the resident to look at images while care partner (or resident) reads titles aloud.
• Consider whether a channel other than All Day Mix or Interests would be a better match for the resident by optionally reading aloud channel names and soliciting resident feedback.
• For a resident who is not able to participate in the selection process, care partner selects a video that matches the resident’s known or suspected interests.
• Note that this might also be tested with visiting family members, and by allowing multiple residents to watch together.

‍Watching Videos:

• Make sure that the video image is large enough/close enough for the resident to see.
• Play the video at normal speed or optionally slow down to match viewer capacity.
• Pause the video from time to time to ask the resident relevant questions that promote a self-to-subject matter conversation.
• If the resident becomes agitated, sleepy or disengaged, try a different video.

I watched the "Just Fun" video with one of our residents (that I had known for 5 years+) and learned that she had a dog! Something I hadn't known for all these years and it got me thinking that these videos are a great way to get to know our residents better.

Deborah L

Registered Nurse in Long-Term Care

The videos serve as great conversation starters.

Eugenia Welch

President / CEO at Alzheimer's San Diego

What a blessing and a gift this TV station is. You can watch things together…and you don’t have to focus on a relationship the person doesn’t remember.

Teepa Snow

Positive Approach to Care

Set the tone | Provide ease and calm | Reduce agitation 

Benefits of watching Zinnia together:

• In individual or small group settings, mood shifts from anxious to calm.
• Playing a mood-lifting video like Just for Fun prior to a scheduled individual or group activity sets a happier tone resulting in an enhanced or more successful activity. 

Selecting which videos to watch:

• The Nature channel includes many videos with soothing imagery, music and sound effects.
  
• If the care partner knows the resident’s likes and dislikes, a sense of ease can come from watching a video about a beloved topic. 
• The Just for Fun videos are intended specifically to lift the mood and create a more playful, happy tone.

‍Watching Videos:

• Make sure that the video image is large enough/close enough for the resident to see.
• Play the video at normal speed or optionally slow down to match viewer capacity.
• Care partners have reported success using Nature videos to keep a small group engaged while they continue gathering residents for an activity. The care partner can relax knowing that the content will not suddenly shift from soothing to triggering.
• Care partners have found Nature videos to be helpful as a background element in the dining hall or other common areas.

Zinnia TV brings to me calm, mind body and spirit. I leave it playing in the background as I go about my day.

Bonnie Erickson

Board President & Founder of the National Council of Dementia Minds

Without Zinnia TV I don’t know how I would have made it through times of crisis.

Carolyn Lukert

PAC Consultant and Support Mentor, Positive Approach to Care

Zinnia TV is super helpful. My client becomes distracted really easily. The nature videos, like waterfalls, trees, birds--they’re really engaging for her. She’s curious about what we’re watching, and often sighs, or says things like, ‘Such beauty!’

Amy K

Aging Wisdom

Foster community,  joy and a sense of accomplishment

Benefits of watching Zinnia together:

• Discussion videos elicit conversations about topics like picnics, Sunday drives, holidays.
• Trivia games invite success, encouraging viewers to identify things like famous faces, dog breeds, flowers.
• What do you think videos elicit more complex thinking and language skills.
• Sing along videos tap into musical memories and invite group participation
• A positive tone is set and moods are lifted

‍Selecting which videos to watch:

Videos in the Fun and Games and Sing-Alongs channels are intended to be interactive and fun, and to work in both individual and small group settings. They can promote a sense of accomplishment by giving residents an opportunity to be successful.

‍Watching Videos:

• Eliminate distractions.
• Encourage participation.
• Provide ample time (up to 20 seconds) for residents to respond to on-screen prompts.
• Make sure that the video image is large enough/close enough for the resident to see.
• Play the video at normal speed or optionally slow down to match viewer capacity.

Zinnia TV is wonderful and so helpful! Mom really enjoys the nature, birds, and baby videos you have as well as the singing of songs she’s familiar with from childhood. She likes the young woman who plays the guitar, as she sings in a lower key that mom can best hear and understand.

Ginger C.

Care partner to her mother

Great video. I found myself quite soothed by the graphics and the slow review of the letters.

Neurogeneticist

University of Malaya

Encourage Participation in Healthful Activities and ADLs

Benefits of watching Zinnia together:

• Routine care tasks are normalized, resulting in greater compliance.
• Anxiety around some personal care tasks and other activities of daily living is lessened.
• Less stress for residents results in less stress for care partners.

‍Selecting which videos to watch:

The Activities of Daily Living channel includes videos that promote a better quality of life by reducing agitation around, and compliance with ADLs. Select videos based on the activity that is to be supported.

‍Watching Videos:

• For one-on-one care tasks like getting dressed, toileting, and drinking water, allow the resident to watch the video before beginning an activity to help them feel comfortable with the care that is about to take place.
• For group tasks like eating a meal it can be helpful to play the video both in advance and during a meal to set  expectations and eliminate anxiety around why we are gathering in the dining hall, for instance.
• If residents are paying too much attention to the video and not eating, consider switching to a less active video from the Nature channel or turning off the video.
• Some videos are intended to be watched by the resident as they perform the activity. Drink Water, for example, or Eat With Me [under development] or Let’s Brush our Teeth [currently being tested].

Playing the Breakfast video has been a game changer at our community. The other caregivers and I see how much calmer everyone is when they know why they’re in the dining hall. This is the way it’s supposed to be.

Lavinia

Professional care partner in a memory care community

Each time the woman in the video lifted her cup of tea and took a sip, our resident did the same!

Research team member

Testing Zinnia TV in memory care