The Louis and Anne Green Memory Wellness Center

Not too many years ago, when someone was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s he or she was often doomed to a downward cognitive spiral where days were spent in a growing fog of loneliness as the world passed by.

To say that our understanding and compassion for them has evolved is a profound understatement.

Today, thanks to a better medical grasp of the affliction, as well as the heightened sense of empathy we have developed as individuals, centers exist all over the world dedicated to enhancing the journey a loved one must take when diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or a related form of dementia.

This past week, we were fortunate to have filmed at the Louis and Anne Green Memory Wellness Center at Florida Atlantic University. Founded in 2001 and currently under the directorship of Barbara Curtis, BHS, the center provides clients with a wide range of activities from lectures, painting, gardening tips and discussions, and even gentle-chair yoga exercises, all of which are meant to promote social interaction and ensure that community members feel valued and respected. The team at the center is comprised primarily of volunteers trained in the life skills required serve clients and their families, and they seem to garner as much value from the experience as do the participants.

One of the most striking values offered by such a center that it gives caregiving families—who may themselves be overwhelmed with the responsibility they have willingly undertaken—to have some personal space in which they can take care of their own daily needs. As many of the professionals we have interviewed have pointed out, this ‘free time’ can be vital to the emotional well-being of those who dedicate their lives to caring for family members with memory loss, and enhance the quality of their interactions with loved ones. Thus, the Louis and Anne Green Memory Wellness Center becomes win/win for everyone involved.

http://nursing.fau.edu/outreach/memory-and-wellness-center/index.php

To learn more about this very important film, please go to: http://ontodaysfrontlines.com/alzheimers/