The more cues you can add without overstimulation, the better. In general, provide consistency, structure and repetition. This will greatly increase your family member's ability to be oriented. Doing things at the same time every day within the same environment adds to the structure and your family member's orientation. Memory From the time that your family member was first in the hospital you probably heard about the memory problems he was going to have, and you have anticipated them with anxiety.
Memory problems take on different forms.
The most prominent will probably be the short-term memory difficulties. Your family member will easily forget things, such as where he put things, when he ate a meal, that he just talked with someone on the phone, or who just came to visit. The long-term effects of a memory deficit include difficulty learning a new task or succeeding in a new job situation. It is important for you to identify and understand the forms of memory loss experienced by your family member. Then you can begin to structure the environment so that he can compensate for what may be long standing problems.