I just had my first experience with trying to find a lost person who has dementia.  My neighbor, who lives two blocks away, had fallen asleep on the couch for thirty minutes.  Just enough time for her husband to unlock the back door and disappear.  He has Lewy Body disease.  She provides his care 24/7.   Although he had been at the Adult Day Center today, she was exhausted and dozed off.  He was wearing the Project Lifesaver ankle bracelet that just had the battery replaced last week. She called the Sheriff’s office to alert them.  While she waited at the end of her driveway, she informed a passing bicyclist of her husband’s disappearance.  The rider of the bike is a friend of ours, so he came on to our house with the news.  While my husband got our bikes to join in the hunt, I wrote a quick alert on my Next Door App to tell my neighbors and surrounding neighborhoods of this man’s disappearance. We rode to her house and introduced ourselves.  I waited with her while my friend and husband rode off in several directions, trying to find the missing man.  It was quickly getting dark.  The Sheriff arrived who had the GPS equipment to find the ankle bracelet.  He rode off with the radar tool out his window to try to find him.

Meanwhile, a neighbor who was out shopping saw the Next Door App alert come up on her phone about the missing man.  She and her husband had recently driven out of the neighborhood and saw a man standing at the dark backend of a driveway on their way out.  Putting the alert together with seeing the man, they returned home, checking to see if he was still where they had seen him.  He was. As good fortune would have it, this alerted neighbor just happened to be a police officer.  He was able to bring our missing man home without incident.  He alerted the other officers involved who were searching the neighborhood.

While I was waiting with the wife, we prayed together that her husband would be found without incident.  He was.  The networking of neighbors, technology, and the hand of God, all are safe tonight.

Are you connected with your neighbors with the Next Door App?  It’s free and an excellent tool to communicate quickly. Check it out. And then invite your neighbors.

On a recent visit to Brooklyn, NY to celebrate with my son and his newly pregnant wife, I remembered seeing Cobble Hill Health Center on my last visit in his neighborhood.  It sits on a quaint street just blocks from the Brooklyn Bridge Park.  I had walked past and wondered what lay within the nicely manicured entrance of the red brick building where several folks in wheelchairs sat outside.

Having seen the movie, “Alive Inside”, I thought that name was the place where Henry “came alive” while listening to music on an iPod for the first time. So I reviewed the movie on Netflix and got the name of the Activity Coordinator featured and gave her a call at work.  She was there and we set up an appointment to meet that afternoon.

Taking my film producer/photographer son along (just in case), we waited in the lobby for Yvonne Flunory.  She has been an Activity Coordinator at Cobble Hill Health Center for sixteen years. She loves her work and makes it a family affair. She proudly explained that her daughter comes as a junior volunteer. Under the leadership of Louise Dueno, the Director of Therapeutic Recreation, along with two other Activity Coordinators, Cheryl McNeill and Renée Adamson, they offer the activities for all 364 residents. Forty beds are in the dementia unit.  They were all gracious enough to wait around after a long day to talk with me and my son for an hour. When sharing the bond of dementia care, there is so much to learn, so much to talk about, yet the subjects extended beyond what I expected.

I wanted to know how the release of the movie “Alive Inside” had affected them.  But first, I met Louise Dueno.  She warmly received us in her office and told us of her family connections of caring for her father who had vascular dementia, what it was like for her as she shared the care with her sister, and how he ultimately died.  Then she described the difficulties she had caring for her uncle and how he became a resident at Cobble Hill Health Center. So her professional life blurs into personal enabling her to  understand what families are dealing with. She related an experience she had just that day that gave her some relief that she had made a good decision about placing him in someone else’s care. She understood why I would take the time from a vacation to stop in and talk to her about caring for a loved one with dementia.

Ms. Dueno told me about the The Alzheimer’s Association, New York City Chapter’s Palliative Care for Advanced Dementia: Training and Implementation, called “Comfort First” being developed in their facility with a grant coordinated by Ann Wyatt from the Alzheimer’s Association.  We talked about the Music and Memory Program that became popular after the release of the movie “Alive Inside” which offers certification that Cobble Hill Health Center has.  That means that upon the initial assessment of a new resident, music preferences are examined either from information from family members, popular music from their era, and other background information. She also mentioned how Wisconsin is implementing this program in 250 long-term care facilities, replacing antipsychotic drugs with music for managing behavioral symptoms. She showed me her collection of iPods being charged in her office, her stash of replaceable sponge headset covers, and her two laptops that they use with their residents. We agreed that the direct listening of ones’ favorite music was more effective than a group activity of listening to music as it shuts out all the other noises and distractions.

While we talked, another woman waited patiently to speak to us.  Turns out, she had some information she wanted to share.  For six years, Ammeka Berken has coördinated and initiated volunteer programs with New York Cares, a not-for-profit program that is a clearing house for volunteers in New York.  Since my son lives near Cobble Hill Health Center, she invited him to their recurring programs at the Center:  Friday they take up to ten residents down to the Brooklyn Bridge Park; Saturday is Swing night which is a dance for the residents; then on Thursday evenings they take residents down to hear the live music at the park.  She took the opportunity to spread her mission by including us.

Passion is what drives those who believe in what they are doing.  Whether it is Dan Cohen with his development of the Music and Memory Program, or initiating the “Comfort First” program in residential facilities, or matching volunteers with life changing opportunities, or implementing activities to residents in long-term care facilities, or caring for a loved one, we move by a force beyond our own strength and abilities. The wish to enrich life for another human drives us to do, to pursue, to create, to learn, and encourage others to do the same. It was a delight to meet these passionate people.

Our encounter built a bridge from Mobile, Alabama to Cobble Hill, NY. May we learn from our connection and strengthen the resolve to improve the care for people with dementia.