Thank You Thunderbirds Charities
Oakwood Creative Care’s mission would not be made possible without the generosity of our community supporters. Over the years, and with the help of Thunderbirds Charities, Oakwood Creative Care has been successful in implementing and continuing the programs that aid in reshaping the way we envision the senior care industry.
Bringing Support To Seniors & Their Families
In December of 2019, Thunderbirds Charities awarded Oakwood Creative Care $8,000 to support the implementation of Dementia Coach services. Thunderbirds Charities has made it possible for our Dementia Coach, who is most otherwise known as our marvelous Nurse Rosemary, to cultivate an environment to maximize the independence of seniors living with cognitive and physical challenges.
Through her role as a Dementia Coach, Rosemary helps families better understand their diagnosis through educational opportunities, creates strategies to minimize the symptoms, recommends measures that meet home safety needs, designs settings to reduce stress, anxiety, and guilt, develops solutions to on-going dementia related problems, increases care partner confidence through education, aims to improve communication amongst the multitude of healthcare providers, and provides continuous support and feedback.
With gratitude in our hearts, Oakwood Creative Care is excited to share that Thunderbirds Charities has once again provided generous support with a $25,000 contribution to replace 3,000 square feet of flooring at our Town Center Day Club location.
New Changes For Town Center Day Club
Chronic conditions like dementia has the capacity to increase visuoperceptual mistakes, making any defects in the flooring incredibly frightening and threatening to the balance and safety of our members, thus creating falls and compromising quality of life.
Research shows dementia advancements with progressive deterioration increases environmental demands, including increased difficulties managing everyday tasks, increased independence, and compromised quality of life from increased agitation and other negative behaviors.
Those who are in a supportive and aesthetically pleasing home-like environment demonstrated a 50% increase in engagement plus slower rate of deterioration in everyday activities, such as personal care, ambulation, eating, etc. (Woodbridge et al., 2016). This is a direct testament to why Thunderbirds Charities’ funding of this project is instrumental in achieving a renovation allowing us to provide critical services in the years to come.
As the year comes to a close, Oakwood Creative Care is looking forward to many of the exciting new changes to come. We would like to express how thankful we are for Thunderbirds Charities and their continued support of our mission towards sparking JOY for seniors!
Citation:
Woodbridge, R et al. “Use of the physical environment to support everyday activities for people with dementia: A systematic review.” Dementia (London, England) vol. 17,5 (2018): 533-572. doi:10.1177/1471301216648670
