Feeling Valued, loved and connected
About Lifelong Learning
Innovative Programming for the 21st Century
A New Commitment to Memory Care
This program is redefining the industry standard of activities that are boring or child-like to a standard that is engaging and encouraging. We are finished sorting socks, sitting in front of a television, playing bingo, batting balloons, and coloring!
For the past twenty years, scientists and researchers have struggled to find a cure for dementia. During that time, we have learned a lot about our brains, including what works and what doesn’t.
Research has proven that the old “brain games” don’t move the needle. People continue to slide along the continuum, become less engaged with the world around them, and lose their ability to communicate their feelings or even their daily needs fully.
While we can’t eliminate many of these outcomes, we can change what people with dementia experience daily. Using the theory that most people enjoy the interaction with others, we have blended creative and expressive sessions with lifelong learning and developed a program that enables everyone to participate and feel loved, valued, and connected.
The Need for a Social Revolution in Senior Care
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890406515300347
Lisa Genova, TED Talk, “What you can do to prevent Alzheimer’s”
https://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_genova_what_you_can_do_to_prevent_alzheimer_s?language=en
Positive Experiences, Meaningful Engagement, Every hour, Every Day
Wonderful Programming Everyday
An affordable monthly membership provides your organization with a complete plan for implementing lifelong learning + creativity for your residents or members. Each month you receive over 80 different ways to deliver a caring and creative curriculum that your participants & their families will love and enjoy.
Our curriculum supports four dimensions of wellness every day:
- Intellectual
- Creative
- Wellness
- Expressive
Each day your participants are exposed to a holistic learning experience that ends choppy activities and provides multiple ways to make the experience come alive: see, hear, touch, say, think, and express.
Familiarity with the EngAGE EnCOURAGE™ process blends comfort with excitement. Participants look forward to learning and creating, and the Fifth-Day Celebration ends the week showcasing and honoring the contributions of participants.
Your organization can offer a brand new up-to-date marketing message. Members, residents & their families are attracted to communities and senior day centers that are using 21st Century experience-based learning to enhance overall quality-of-life for everyone!
A Blend of the Best
What’s In, What’s Out for 2020?
At the turn of the last century, we will still riding in horse-drawn carriages and lighting candles to see our way in the dark. In the past 100 years, the automobile and electricity have become ubiquitous – they are everywhere. At the turn of the last century, 2000, we began experimenting with autonomous vehicles, building a permanent space station, and examining a problem by “thinking outside the box.”
To solve a problem today, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of 21st Century learners who are no longer satisfied with the way things have always been.
EngAGE EnCOURAGE™ is an opportunity for all of us to try new things, new ways of engaging and interacting and connecting people living with dementia with the world.
Blending the strategies of lifelong learning + creativity provides different types of experiences that support tapping into the unknown and celebrating accomplishments.
Lifelong Learning:
- Uses adult language and terminology enabling participants to feel respected
- Provides opportunities for participants to make their own choices
- Offers inspiration for recall, reflection & validation
- A new excitement associated with learning & experiencing familiar and new things
- Engagement & interaction with other adults
Creativity:
- Meaningful opportunities to tap into the unknown
- Use different parts of the brain
- Generate new ideas & expand our world
- Celebrate accomplishments
- Engagement and interaction with other adults
- Promote critical and creative thinking
Twelve Months of Programming
What is EngAGE EnCOURAGE™?
Sample Class Components:
- Creative & Expressive Sessions
- Lifelong Learning Class
- Music Playlists
- Call & Response Poetry
- Short Story
- Fifth-Day Celebration
Sample Class Theme
America’s National Parks
America’s relationships with national parks, public programs and photographers may seem unrelated to the casual observer but we may not have had one without the others. President Theodore Roosevelt put us on the course of protecting public land and his brother, President Franklin Roosevelt created public programs that enhanced and improved our parks as well as documenting their beauty.
What the Experts Say
Research & Outcomes
Over the past twenty years, we have learned a lot about the brain. This knowledge enables organizations to implement new & innovative strategies. Something as simple as a common theme adds purpose and meaning; participants become engaged, not just for an hour, but for an entire week & month!
Our outcomes, as well as industry research, show that people with dementia thrive in an environment where they are treated with dignity and respect and encouraged to be independent and to make choices. We saw early on that a new paradigm needed to be developed and implemented. Watching TV, playing Bingo, and sorting socks or buttons is “distraction,” not interaction & engagement.
Participants in EngAGE EnCOURAGE™ are living, not dying. We approach every day as an opportunity to provide laughter, joy, and love to all participants and their families.
In 1999 a study was released that identified “Non-pharmacological Treatment for Alzheimer’s disease: A mind-brain approach.” The researchers reference Abraham Maslow, who defined the components of life quality over half a century ago as physiological, security, social, self-esteem, and self-actualization. For those with dementia, these components have not disappeared. The ability to communicate their needs may have changed but deep down, we know that these basic needs are essential to all people. In other words, “treatment for Alzheimer’s must employ a healthy environment, activities, communication, and programs to maximize the use of cognitive capacities.”
Outcomes for EngAGE EnCOURAGE™ Participants
- Experience life, engage in life, have a fuller life
- Topic immersion; familiarity with the topic & process lead to feelings of success
- Learning experiences lead to increased satisfaction in how time is spent
- Creativity taps into the unknown
- Increased quality-of-life
- Increased cognitive abilities, strength and balance, and decreased depression as a result of engagement and reduced boredom/isolation
Become a Successful Aging Expert
Implement a Lifelong Learning Program for Your Residents
Let us help you establish a sustainable and affordable learning program for your community. We offer materials, consulting and training for your staff.