Lady-Links: Recognized for Linking to Love

Recently five ladies received their Lady-Links pins recognizing them for their achievements in our program of making friendship visits to women in various stages of cognitive decline (we call them dear friends) who live in our retirement community.  To receive a pin, each Lady-Link has to have completed three training sessions on information related to Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, with application on how to practically apply what she’s learned to successfully engaging a dear friend during a visit. In addition, she must complete six months of active participation in our friendship visits to her assigned dear friend partnered with experienced Lady-Links.  Our pinning ceremony recognized each new Lady-Link for her compassion, dedication, and devotion to helping her dear friend maintain important links in her life.

Our pins are designed to represent our slogan “Lady-Links: Linking Love, Laughter, and Life.”

At our Lady-Links visits we engage our dear friends in activities that help preserve skills by keeping them involved in social relationships.  As a result, a dear friend’s life is enriched in areas of trust, self-esteem and social interaction because we give plenty of positive feedback.  We smile, we laugh, we compliment, and we encourage.  We look at what our dear friends can do rather than what they can’t do. All this is centered around love, because we love our dear friends and we love what we do!

Each Lady-Link is assigned to a team to visit a dear friend.  Currently we have 52 Lady-Links, divided into teams that visit seven dear friends.  For our pinning ceremony, team members of our newest pinned Lady-Links were there to add support and encouragement.

Families of our dear friends are generous with their praise for Lady-Links.  They notice better social skills, improved mood, and an increase in their loved one’s quality of life.  Congratulations to our newest “pinned” Lady-Links!