January is Alzheimer's Awareness Month, a several organizations have come up with unique ways to help those living with the disease - live better.

Living with dementia or Alzheimer's disease can be frustrating, explains 75-year-old Jim Williams.

"I was getting angrier and angrier because I kept making more and more mistakes."

He and his wife Carolyn started noticing changes in his behaviour a few years ago, but didn't know what to do at first.

"I had a neighbour whose husband was going through the same thing and she told me to go right home and call the Alzheimer Society, and I was a little bit in denial," Carolyn says.

But she did call, and they immediately started getting the help they needed.

Nancy O'Regan of the Alzheimer Society of London and Middlesex says, "We very much try to create an environment in all of our programs where it's okay to be forgetful, it's okay to not be able to function at the level you could have when you were well."

The organization offers a range of services, from social work to group chat sessions and even hobby classes.

About 1,600 clients come and go through the group's doors, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

About 8,800 people in the London region have been diagnosed with dementia. Some still live independently with the help of family while others are in long-term care facilities.

One of those facilities is Mount Hope, where 60 per cent of residents are living with dementia.

Everything is considered, explains director Janet Groen, including using murals covering elevators and exits.

"What we've found since we've camouflaged exits, is that the residents are sitting here in the park, it's more like a calm, relaxing environment.."

Another new initiative to help calm residents is a hand muff program. They look like simple scarves for your hands, but they're much more, and have been very well recieved.

Noelle Tangredi is is among the knitters helping out, she says, "This is something that helps with those sensory - it helps with the feelings, it has little things for them to touch, things for them to button and unbutton."

The knitted hand muffs are also being used at the Alzheimer Society, to help clients like Jim, who hopes others will seek help like he did in order to live a better life.

He advises people to, "Listen to everybody that's telling you things and learn from that and accept it - and it works out pretty good."

Anyone who would like to knit hand muffs to help keep up with demand can find information and a pattern here: https://www.sjhc.london.on.ca/our-stories/hand-muffs-dementia