Dealing With Dementia
Max Liebermann
My name is Max Liebermann and I'm a Junior at Holliston High School. In the fall I play Soccer for the high school and run Track in the Spring. As a kid I watched my grandfather develop Alzheimer's and watch it take a toll on him and my family. Since then I have been interested in Dementia/Alzheimer's and now I can finally pursue it.
Community need
I chose to research Alzheimer's because my grandfather had it before he passed away. Seeing how this affected him, my grandma, my dad, and every other person involved made me wonder why there is so little to do about this issue; given how long it has been around. On top of this, over 6 million Americans have Alzheimer’s. A lot of the care done for these people is unpaid and done by a loved one. Seeing how many people are affected by this, I realized that I have common ground on this issue.
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Facts and Statisitics
Over 6 million Americans are diagnosed with Alzheimer's, by 2050 it is estimated to be around 13 million
1 in 3 seniors dies with some sort of dementia
In 2022 alone, unpaid caregivers gave an estimated 18 billion hours of care
11 million unpaid caregivers
Goals
While researching I discovered a way to connect with people diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Memory Cafe's. A Memory Cafe is a place for people at any point in their Alzheimer's diagnosis to relax and socialize with people like them. This comes at no cost to them. At first, I planned to host a Memory Cafe inside of Holliston. My goal was to lead activities and take the stress off of people who are dealing with Alzheimer's care, even if it was just for a few hours.
Cornerstone of Milford
Through trial and error, I finally made my way to Cornerstone of Milford. I reached out to Jennifer Hozempa who is the head of their memory care unit. After emailing back and forth we were able to meet and talk about my project. She liked the idea and from there we scheduled days for me to come in.
Community Partner
Jennifer Hozempa from Cornerstone at Milford
Mrs. Hozempa is the head of the memory care unit at Cornerstone of Milford. She has been involved in memory care since she was my age. She started out taking care of her grandmother who had Alzheimer's. From this, she was inspired to work with Alzheimer's and she was able to become the head of Compass at Cornerstone.
Progress
Once I could visit the memory care unit, I might have spent more time in Cornerstone than in my Service Learning classroom. Any day I had dsb or lunch with my class I would go over and do whatever I could to help. It started with simple things like just observing Mrs. Hozempa lead activities for the residents or having small conversations with them.
As I got more and more comfortable I got to do things like play trivia or read their bingo cards for them. Slowly I started to subconsciously apply everything I had learned so far. These were things like staying attentive to them when they have something to say, asking them simple questions like how was their lunch, and just keeping myself involved. Some days I would come in at an off time and do something like put together gingerbread houses for future activities or organize old discs that had lost their cases- but I didn't mind.
Finally, I reached the point where Mrs. Hozempa trusted me enough to lead my own activities for the residents. I got to play modified games with them like racquetball, but with a balloon that we just hit back and forth. While I might not have been able to host the Memory Cafe in the end, I was still able to give some help to Alzheimer's caregivers.
Everyone and I wearing the pins
I got the opportunity to use the school's button-maker and made buttons for all of the residents.
Community Help
As a part of the community, the best way to help out is by educating yourself on how Alzheimer's works. for more info, The National Institute on Aging is a reliable source. If you would like to donate money www.alz.org/get-involved-now/donate takes the money to make life easier for people diagnosed with Alzheimer's
On the left is a sheet I made for volunteers on how to treat a person dealing with Alzheimer's
If you have any questions or would like to learn more please contact me at liebermannmax@students.holliston.k12.ma.us