Social engagement programs for people with dementia and their care partners

In this episode of Living with Alzheimer’s, I interview Kayla Jakel, Community Connect Program Manager for Alzheimer’s Association Michigan Chapter, about the work her program is doing to engage people with dementia. Kayla manages the Bruce H. and Rosalie N. Rosen Community Connect Program, which provides people living with dementia and their care partners a broad range of social and cultural opportunities.

You can read about and register for these programs at https://www.alz.org/gmc/helping_you/social_engagement. And, you can reach Kayla with questions or ideas at kjakel@alz.org.

Afterwords, I speak to Ginger about social engagement programs she would be interested in attending and we talk about some of her memories related to the programs being offered by Community Connect. You may note that Ginger begins experiencing sundowning toward the end of our conversation and that remembering recent events and word recall become more challenging for her. This is an everyday occurrence for Ginger and other’s suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.