Lady-Links Newsletter for September 23, 2013

September 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
  • Lady-Links are encouraged to participate in the “Walk to End Alzheimer’s” on Friday, September 27.  Come and join our friend and her husband and many others as we walk from our community building to the lake and back.  Remember to wear purple!
  • Phase 1 of our Lady-Links commitment is coming to a close.  We organized as a group two months ago, committing to make one-hour friendship visits to our friend with Alzheimer’s dementia, twice a week.  There are 10 Lady-Links, so each Lady-Link makes two to three visits per month. We visit in groups of 2 or 3.   We have seen tremendous improvement in the areas of social skills and communication with our friend.  Lady-Links report that they receive as much joy from their visits as our friend does.  Our friend has responded favorably to each project and activity we have initiated and our goals for our initial phase have been met.  Every Lady-Link has made a commitment to continue.
  • Our Link-up Luncheon is scheduled for this Wednesday, September 25 in our community’s private dining room at 11:45 a.m.  You will have an opportunity to share your concerns, joys, blessings, hopes, insights and thoughts.  Dennie will provide an update, telling us what to expect for Phase 2 (October – December) of our commitment to provide friendship visits to our friend.  Dennie will have the schedule available, so if you haven’t already done so, you can schedule your visits.  We will end at 1:30 p.m.
  • There is an excellent article at aplaceformom.com called “Picture It:  How Art Helps Dementia Patients” that supports our efforts to engage our friend in painting the cards for the Card Ministry.  The article says, “Studies show that art therapy can enhance communication, brain function and social interaction for dementia patients.”  Our friend enjoys the cards, especially the one with the elephant giving himself a shower.  She loves to paint extra drops of water all over that elephant for “extra” blessings.  She has occasionally opened one of the cards and read aloud the message, only missing a couple of the words, which is remarkable considering that her husband thought that her reading skills were lost.  Let’s find other projects that include painting, such as decorating pumpkins or making holiday decorations or ornaments.  Ideas?  Let Dennie know.
  • A Lady-Links visit is scheduled on Tues., Sept. 24 at 2:30 p.m.
  • The Lady-Links visit on Fri., Sept. 27 at 10:00 a.m. will be the walk.  Meet in the lobby.

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Dancing with the Lady-Links Stars

September 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The research shows that Alzheimer’s patients benefit greatly from activities, especially those they enjoy. Exercise strengthens and maintains muscles, reduces joint pain, and helps to increase and maintain flexibility. We found out that our friend loves to dance, and we incorporate that in most of our Lady-Links visits.

Dancing to Perry Como.

Dancing to Perry Como.

 

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Welcome to the New Lady-Links Website!

September 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Lady-Links success stories continue to abound! People are hearing about our visits with our friend and telling us they can observe the difference our group is making. The research on dementia is full of examples of benefits people receive from activities. Some of these include happier daily life, increased feelings of self-worth, maintained memory, enhanced and maintained communications skills, and improved and increased personal relationships.

This website will share our story of visiting with our friend who has Alzheimer’s dementia. Our hope is that you will duplicate our efforts with that special person in your life who suffers from any of the many types of dementia. We’d love to hear from you!

We will be sharing our newsletters, projects and activities on this blog. We will even share things that didn’t work and what we learned from that.

Promoting communication and friendship over coffee.

Promoting communication and friendship over coffee.

You can also connect with us on Facebook.

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Newsletter for September 9, 2013

September 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
  • Have you noticed how much our friend is participating, smiling, laughing, and communicating during your Lady-Link visits?  Our love and laughter-filled visits are enriching her life in many ways.  And that’s not just our opinion!  Assist Guide Information Services, a partner with the National Alzheimer’s Foundation, has posted on their website,  www.AGIS.com , a list of benefits people with Alzheimer’s receive from activities.  Some of these include enjoy happier daily life, increase feelings of self-worth, maintain memory, enhance and maintain communication skills, improve and increase personal relationships,  and reduce nervous tension,  behaviors and wandering.  You are making a significant difference in our friend’s life.
  • We’ve added another activity….singing!  The Tuesday Lady-Links introduced singing at their last visit, and our friend participated with great enthusiasm.  In fact, she knew most of the words to patriotic songs like Yankee Doodle and fun songs like Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  At Friday’s visit, our friend initiated singing and dancing by putting on a Perry Como CD (we helped a little with volume adjustment) and she began singing the words.  We joined in and soon it turned into a Dancing with the Stars moment!  Our friend loves ballroom dancing and even twirled her partners.  With all the singing, dancing, and exercising, plus activities such as flower arranging, card painting and card playing, you will find that the hour goes quickly.  Remember, just pick and choose what works best for our friend.  The goal is to engage her in activities that she enjoys, not to accomplish any given number of projects.
  • We have seen great progress in our friend’s acceptance of new activities.  Friday will be a milestone for us if we can accomplish what we are going to try.  After we have enjoyed a few activities around the kitchen table, we will attempt to leave the apartment and go to the Multipurpose Room to exercise, dance, and roll large beach balls from one person to another.  This will be of great benefit to her overall health if she can do this.
  • I hope you have reserved Wednesday, September 25th on your calendar for our Link-up.  Bring your lunch (or if you’re not eating, just bring yourself) to the Private Dining Room at 11:45.  We will begin our meeting at noon and it will last until 1:30 p.m.  Our Link-up will include an opportunity for you to share your concerns, joys, blessings, hopes, insights and thoughts.  Dennie will provide an update.
  • Lady-Links visit scheduled on Tues., Sept. 10 at 2:30 p.m.
  • Lady-Links  visit scheduled  on Fri., Sept. 13 at 10:00 a.m.
  • Comments or questions?  It’s easy…just email us at contactl@lady-links.com or check out our website at Lady-Links.com. or connect with Lady-Links on Facebook.
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