“Alzheimer’s patients are used to being told what they can’t do. So we like to highlight things they can do and make them feel a sense of pride again,” Diane Arnold said.
Diane Arnold has opened two different “Alzheimer’s day cares” in Mississippi. The patients come in from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., Monday through Thursday. Some patients live in nursing homes, others in their family member’s home.
After successfully opening one Alzheimer’s daycare called Sunny Seniors, Arnold and her husband started Memory Makers after they moved to Oxford in 2010. They started out in the Presbyterian Church until the city and county started donating about $18,000 a year. After a generous donor offered to pay their rent, they were able to buy their own facility on Anderson Road off of Jackson Avenue.
A typical day at Memory Makers includes breakfast and lunches, “good old day” stories where they reminisce, a devotional and scripture reading, brain exercises and stretching, crossword puzzles and an art project. The staff focuses on what the patients can still do and how much their brain is still capable of.
“These people led very productive lives once upon a time, and they love to talk about it. They love to see what all is left in their brains,” Arnold said.
Arnold’s father suffered from Alzheimer’s, which lit her passion to assist those tormented with this disease.
“He still loved to laugh and sing and talk and drink coffee and visit. That is what gave us the idea for Sunny Seniors, which I opened and is still in operation in Cleveland, Mississippi,” Arnold said.
There are only two paid employees, the rest are volunteers. There are different volunteers that play piano, do yoga, paint pictures and do pottery with the patients. There are never more than four patients to one worker, and they are always looking for extra help to brighten their patients’ days.
Arnold teaches volunteers to use “the best friends approach:” everyone around the table is a friend. Arnold noted that a popular exercise is flower arranging. People will donate florals from events and then the Memory Makers’ patients will arrange bouquets.
“You can’t fail at making flower arrangements. They don’t get frustrated; it brings them joy. Some of the patients will bring them back to nursing home shut ins or back home to loved ones, and, you know, it makes them feel productive because they get to help someone else,” Arnold said.
The patients enjoy spending time at Memory Makers. They come into the facility greeted by a family of caretakers. Every volunteer in the room has a smile on their face, happy to be there and ready to help make memories.
Arnold’s overwhelming goal is to make her patients feel loved and give them a sense of self-accomplishment. To do so, Memory Makers is always accepting volunteers, supplies and donations.
By Emily Jameson, a student of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. She can be reached at eajameso@go.olemiss.edu.
