Adult Day Centers are a treasure for students that want to learn about working with the elderly. Students are exposed to working directly with seniors, recreation therapy, nutrition and transportation services. At our adult day center, they can also see first hand as VNS CHOICE (http://www.vnschoice.org/) Nurse Consultants and Social Workers evaluate their members.   It is a unique opportunity to watch care coordination in action.

We are lucky to have nursing interns from St. Josephs College and Queensborough Community College, art therapy interns from NYU and Pratt, and Gerontology interns from LaGuardia…

If you’re passionate about something, why should you ever stop doing it, as long as you’re able… At our center, we always try to offer programs that involve hobbies or daily activities that our participants have enjoyed throughout their lives. Just because someone is over a certain age, why should they stop doing what they love?  Our answer is, they should never stop – keep doing what you love as long as they can!

Our participants suffer many losses including losing loved ones, losing their memory or seeing a decrease in…

Last week, we celebrated the 10 year anniversary of our center. We were grateful to receive Proclamations from Mayor Bloomberg, the City Council of New York and Helen Marshall, Queens Borough President. We are proud to partner with New York City to help serve seniors in Queens and Brooklyn.

We had a wonderful celebration and I’d like to share some comments from our participants:

• Age has no meaning here.
• Without this place, I wouldn’t be going out.
• I have learned a lot since coming here.
• I feel accepted with open arms.
• The staff here appreciate seniors’…

This week, our Day Center is celebrating our 10^th anniversary! It’s quite a milestone and I’m filled with pride as I see what we’ve created. You can gather people in any space, but it’s what the staff and seniors bring that give it life and meaning.

Ten years ago, we started our center with about 15 participants on our census. Over the past 10 years, we’ve enrolled over 1,100 seniors from Queens and Brooklyn. Our seniors came here not knowing a soul and now they have a family. Not only do they…

Caregivers have a lot on their plate, and it can be very challenging balancing caregiving responsibilities while taking care of their own lives and families. Some people with Alzheimer’s Disease may exhibit wandering behaviors and that adds even more challenges to keeping loved ones safe and healthy. Some may attempt to leave their safe environments without supervision or may get lost while out in the community unattended.

At our center, we have a Wanderguard program for memory impaired seniors to help prevent wandering. The Alzheimer’s Association has a Safe Return Program…

Sometimes, it can be difficult to ensure that people with Alzheimer’s Disease are getting proper nutrition. They may get agitated during mealtime, their food choices may change as the disease progresses, they may forget that they ate or they may not be able to express what they want to eat. At our Day Center, we closely observe food intake for our memory-impaired participants. If we notice that participants are not eating well or there is a change in eating patterns, we immediately notify their caregivers and VNS CHOICE MLTC Nurse…

One of our participants has had a very ill daughter for many years. Over the years, her daughter has visited us at the center, enjoyed our entertainment, and always admired the jewelry that her mother made here. Our participant loves jewelry making and has made many necklaces for her daughter. It’s been so therapeutic for her to get involved in these art projects during these difficult years, and it was especially important to her to be able to give her daughter these gifts.

Sadly last week, her daughter passed away. She…

When you hear bingo, what do you think? Do you think of seniors just sitting around? At our center, bingo provides a wealth of therapeutic opportunities to stimulate the mind and body.

We play regular bingo, musical bingo, around-the-house bingo and bingo with personalized questions and answers for special occasions. In our frail program, our higher functioning seniors play multiple cards and you can see their brains working to find the numbers and manage all their cards! Playing bingo utilizes eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills, as well as stimulates cognitive…

When a loved one is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, it affects caregivers on so many different levels and few are prepared. The more caregivers care for themselves, the better they can care for loved ones. Here are a few tips from the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America:

• Get information about the illness – read books, surf the web, attend seminars, etc.
• Stick to routines.  Changes in schedule or surroundings can cause confusion for your loved one and make things more difficult.
• Share caregiving tasks with others.
• Take time for respite for yourself – do something to make…

I wanted to take time to recognize the incredible work that Home Health Aides do everyday here at the Day Center and out in the community. For us, they are the heart of our program and no one knows our seniors better than they do. Our aides are constantly giving personal care, support and companionship, while at the same time monitoring and reporting changes in physical and cognitive functioning. There have been so many times that our aides have picked up on health issues quickly, thus avoiding hospitalizations. For aides…