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Date: 9/9/2016
HAMPDEN – The Hampden Senior Center was awarded a $10,000 grant from the state for a new program called “memory café,” which specializes in providing activities for people with dementia.
Wendy Turer, outreach coordinator at the Hampden Senior Center, said Hampden is the only community in Western Massachusetts operating a memory café. The closest municipality that hosts the program is Worcester.
“We are partnering with Homewatch Caregivers and they will actually be facilitating the sessions,” she added.
Christina Vernon, a clinical social worker from Homewatch who specializes in geriatric, dementia, and hospice care, will lead the program’s schedule, Turer noted.
he memory café will take place every other Thursday starting Sept. 16 from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. The event is free and starts with coffee hour in the morning, lunch, and an afternoon activity.
“We have someone coming in to do music therapy and then in between we’ll have different things that we do – different projects, on the days that we don’t bring a special guest speaker in,” Turer said.
Each date the memory café is open would also include a different schedule of events, she noted.
“One week, we’ll have an art instructor come in and they’ll do a painting or whatever she has planned,” Turer noted. “Another week, we actually have someone who does memoir writing and so she’s going to come in and work with them on things they remember from the past – their fondest memories of a holiday or a vacation – and they’ll write that down and we’ll kind of publish it.”
Other planned activities include yoga and baking, Turer said.
She added the program would continue until the end of the year, after which it would also include a respite for caregivers to leave and come back later. That aspect of the program will start Jan. 6.
“They can do whatever they need to do and the person with the memory challenge will remain at our facility with our aids and our caregivers here and they will continue to do activities until 2 p.m.,” Turer said. “It kind of gives a respite for both the caregiver and the person who’s being cared for, which we know is obviously very important to get that little bit of a break.”
Turer said if the program is successful, she hopes the program could be extended to include more dates.
“Hopefully, we can do it every Friday,” she added. “That would require us to continue to get the funding. We’ll keep our fingers crossed and see how that goes. But we’re hoping, with this program, to show that there is a need and we show that there are huge benefits to having people that do have memory challenges engage in things – to keep them active socially as well as physically and mentally.”
For additional information call Turer at the Hampden Senior Center at 566-5589. The program is open to residents of all communities.