First and Main
We've had the wonderful opportunity to film at First and Main of Metro Health Village, http://firstandmain.us/, in Wyoming, Michigan.
Our main focus for our film’s production was to better understand how far we have come in caring for those with a form of dementia.
The onsite care team – Rex Townsend, Executive Director; Ashley Boroff, Memory Care Director; Michael Lown, Chief Financial Officer at the Diocese of Grand Rapids; and Sara Stocker, Director of Strategic Initiatives - shared with us the wide range of daily activities that help keep a memory care resident engaged throughout the day; as well as showing how the use of technology has advanced their daily lives by way of special monitor alert systems.
Everything we experienced at First and Main is important to our film, but our filming with Don and Janice Cass was especially touching. Don and Janice, who have been together 62 years, live in one of the apartments on the third floor memory care residences.
This is one of the very special offerings of First and Main – the spouse of a loved one with dementia having the opportunity to live with their significant other in their own unit. Don, a Vietnam Veteran, shared with us the difficulties of growing older with Janice as she lives with dementia. Don’s love for his wife was so apparent as he fought back tears about how this disease has turned their life upside-down. Fortunately, through First and Main, they are able to work through this and stay together.
After meeting with Don and Janice, we were able to capture another touching story – that of Gary Cheesman and Georgette Cartier; both live on the memory care floor and have a form of dementia. We witnessed this inseparable friendship they have developed in the midst of this devastating journey.
We are beyond grateful to First and Main of Metro Health Village for allowing us to spend a couple of days with their residents.
To learn more about how you can support this very important film, please go to: http://ontodaysfrontlines.com/alzheimers/