There is nothing like a live performance to energize an audience. Especially when everyone gets to participate! At Chelsea Place Memory Care in Aurora, Colorado, students from Regis Jesuit High School worked with residents to plan and organize a cavalcade of music and visual presentations.
As so often happens when young people get together with older adults, the young people got much more than they bargained for! “Our job is to liven up the community, but they end up livening up our lives instead,” Regis student, Rene Del Barco, told a reporter for the local station, CBS4 in Denver, who was covering the event.
Everyone comes away feeling refreshed and more connected.
Socializing individuals, challenged with dementia, with young people often elicits reactions that other interactions do not. Whether it’s the act of instructing the young person on how to do something, or sharing a story about their own youth, the experience gives these older individuals a greater sense of purpose. And everyone benefits. This was certainly the case at Chelsea Place, as the young people shared fun stories and played music alongside the residents and staff.
“We talk with them, we have conversation. We serve them breakfast. We feed them sometimes. We do activities and we just have a fun time with them,” explained student, John Miller, to the CBS4 reporter.
And everyone comes away from these experiences feeling refreshed and more connected, having learned something about each other in the process. “Although they have Alzheimer’s, there’s so much that we can learn from them and so much they want to teach us, too,” Rene Del Barco said.
Find opportunities to bring your loved one together with family members and friends.
At Anthem Memory Care, we couldn’t agree more. Finding ways to engage and connect our residents to those around them is so important to their health and wellbeing. It helps remove that feeling of isolation, which can lead to depression. That’s why we encourage those who are caring for a loved one with dementia to find opportunities to bring them together regularly with family members and supportive friends. It creates experiences that are healthy and positive for everyone.
(photo is courtesy of CBS4 Denver)