One day in 2015, Rachel Thompsonâs grandmother, who has long lived with dementia, picked up a newspaper and began reading its headlines aloud, shocking her family who thought that her condition had robbed her of a favourite pastime.
âSo then we started thinking, âOh, itâs not that she canât read, she just can no longer read books that she normally would be able to,ââ Thompson told CTVNews.ca. âSo I went online to try and order her⌠books that were made for people with dementia and I couldnât find anything.â
Thompson, who was in the final year of a degree in the University of Waterlooâs health studies program at the time, was suddenly inspired by the novel idea of creating reading material for people like her grandmother.
âSo I changed my senior research project to research the ties between the procedural memory and reading for individuals living with dementia,â she said. âThe rest is kind of history.â
In the summer of 2015, Thompson pitched the idea to a . Three years later, her company, -- a portmanteau of âMarilynâ and âHelena,â her two grandmothersâ names -- has published âdementia-friendlyâ illustrated books on everything from romance to sports.
Thompson, who describes herself as an âaccidental entrepreneur,â says the books provide people living with Alzheimerâs disease and dementia more âmeaningful recreationâ than the childrenâs books they are often given by caregivers.
âThey focus on mature stories, so stuff that older adults would actually be interested in, but theyâre at a reading level that is adjusted to be easier for them to read, which is normally around a Grade 5 reading level,â she explained. âTheyâre also quite short, so theyâre always under 750 words (so) that (they) can be read in one sitting.â
Nearly everything else about the books has been designed with input from experts like optometrists and psychologists to make them as accessible as possible.
âDesign-wise, we only use hard covers and thicker paper weights for those with dexterity issues,â Thompson said.
For those with vision loss, font type, size and spacing have been designed following the . Based on dementia eye-tracking studies, margins are also smaller than in typical books. âTurn pageâ prompts, moreover, are found at the bottom of each page.
âAnd you only see text on half of the page that has text because we found that individuals with dementia will often get overwhelmed if theyâre facing a full page of text,â Thompson added. âThen there are little things that weâve put into consideration, like we try and always use charactersâ names instead of pronouns to help people remember who weâre referring to.â
The stories are also intentionally meant to evoke earlier memories.
âWe try and centre our stories either when they were either in adolescence or an early adult because thatâs typically where they can have the most memory recall,â Thompson said. âWe have a hockey one that we originally thought was going to be a lot more popular with the guys. We found a lot of women who had sons who grew up playing hockey, that story really resonated with them because it would kind of bring back those memories of them watching their sonsâ hockey games for many, many years.â
The books are written by authors from Ontarioâs Kitchener-Waterloo region and illustrated by both local artists and dementia patients themselves.
âTheyâre always very colourful and enticing because if an individual maybe canât process the words as well as they once could, then hopefully they can learn a bit more through the story by referencing the images,â Thompson said. And for those who can no longer read, the books give people a way to bond with their loved ones, she says.
Five titles are currently available as hardcover and e-books and 10 more are slated to be released in November. The books can be purchased on and Amazon and can also be found in long-term care facilities and libraries across Ontario. In late October, the company will also be releasing an iOS app that will pair the books with accessibility features for those with later-stage dementia as well as data tracking capabilities for caregivers.
For Thompson, the company is all about improving wellbeing and overcoming âpreconceived notions of what someone with dementia is able to do.â
âItâs definitely rewarding,â Thompson said of her ever-expanding social enterprise. âAnd itâs fun to see how itâs grown from something that started with just my grandmother to be something thatâs affected a lot more people.â