FALL 2010Daphne Hollingshead
Friends Village at Woodstown continues to provide high quality care to our residents, serving both their personal and community needs. We graciously offer programs and services that benefit the whole person.
Every once in a while, a resident needs a place to sit where there is a change of scenery. Our Support Services department partnered with our Nursing department to create a space for just that purpose.
Our Sensory Room is designed with everything needed to create a calm outdoor setting. When residents need a peaceful place to relax, the Sensory Room is the perfect escape. This room, located on the health care wing, creates an inviting atmosphere with a front porch scene. Residents can gaze at the lakeside wall mural bordered by a porch rail and let their minds wander. Comfortable wicker furniture against the opposing shingle-sided wall makes relaxing a priority. What a view!
For the mind, we have residents currently participating in the new Posit Science Brain Fitness program. This computer program was developed by a team of leading brain neuroscientists headed by Dr. Michael Merzenich of the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Merzenich questioned whether the older person’s brain performance could be changed and improved through training. His studies revealed that cognitive conditions, including age-related decline, could be prevented, slowed, and sometimes reversed. With a generous grant from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Friends Village was able to provide the program to our residents.
This user-friendly computer course includes visual and audio exercises. One visual exercise challenges the memory when the participant is asked to move characters to different location in the order instructed. The audio exercises ask participants to differentiate between consonant sounds, like daa and baa.
Like any form of exercise, many of the 13 residents participating report that after using the Brain Fitness program, they are tired and feel challenged. But they also feel the results are positive and enjoy doing the exercises.
And for the body, Friends Village will be a smoke-free campus as of November 17, 2010! The health hazards of smoking affect millions of people; many of those affected are close to us! On November 17, visitors will not be permitted to smoke outside the building, and new residents and staff will be asked to smoke off campus. While this new rule may take some time to get used to, it is designed to benefit the health and safety of everyone in the Friends Village community.
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Last modified:
Monday, September 06, 2010 at 06:18 PM
