Life Enrichment for Memory Care

Chateau Gardens memory care director at Chateau Valley Center Michelle Oleas joins Suzanne on the Answers for Elders podcast with Lacy Steed, Vice President of Life Enrichment for Chateau Retirement. This episode was recorded at Chateau Valley Center in Renton, Washington. Michelle and Lacy talks about how memory care interfaces with with Life Enrichment at Chateau, and how they work together.Michelle says, "They're both very important entities, but I don't look at it as separate entities, rather independent pillars. That is very important to enhance the quality of life of our residents. Nursing, we take care of the medical part. We give the medications. We want to keep them safe. While life enrichment, they're there to provide social interaction, meet their spiritual needs. There's just so many things that work hand in hand that are both essential in providing the needs of our residents."Michelle says, "Usually in dementia, we cannot dwell in the past nor the future, right? They live in the moment. When I have a family member come up to me and say that was a wonderful event, and my mom was really happy with what was going on in memory care, that really hits me hard, right? Because at the end of the day, we're here for the residents. Whatever time they have left, we want to make sure that they do have quality time. We always hear, 'Oh, they have dementia. They won't remember any more.' That's not true. Because at that moment, if you made them happy, then they know – something made them happy. So I think that's a very important piece with these activities."Lacy adds, "Memory care holds also a special place in my heart. My grandmother suffered through dementia, and it's just a horrible disease. So we work very closely with all of our nursing staff and our caregivers and med techs. We try to be very involved in memory care, and we are working on having weekly morning meetings with the teams to make sure we're all on the same page. It's everyone's job to enrich people's lives, especially for memory care. In memory care, it takes a lot. It takes a village. I have so much respect for nurses and memory care, and it's a hard job. And dementia and Alzheimer's, and we couldn't do it without them and vice versa."Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton.Visit them online or call 800.960.1944. Also visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders to hear more of their shows.Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.Mentioned in this episode:Chateau RetirementChateau Retirement