Olewnik 6

Samantha Olewnik

Final Internship Report

Professor Erickson

August 29, 2014

For my summer internship I worked at the Dale Association Inc. in my hometown of Lockport, NY. Although it is the local senior center, I had absolutely no idea what types of services they offered until I applied to intern there; to be honest, I wasnt entirely aware that it was a senior center at all until I did an online search for elder resources in my area. I ended up working for the Memory Minders program, a social program designed to help elders with varying stages of dementia maintain the level of cognitive functioning that they possess, with the overall goal that their cognitive abilities will improve. Through my interactions with this program, I was able to get an inside view of what keeps the center running, as well as the many, many programs and services that it offers to the residents of my home community.

The Dale Association was founded in 1951 as a club for senior citizens who were living alone and desired social and recreational opportunities. It was originally called the Lockport Golden Age Club, then the Lockport Senior Citizens Centre, and finally the Dale Association in 1995 in honor of its first paid executive director, Elizabeth "Bette" Dale. A total of nine people attended the first meeting of the Lockport Golden Age Club, but by the end of the year one-hundred and nine were attending monthly. The club grew to have 2,000 members by 1962, and after declaring itself a legitimate senior centre, has since flourished and continues to grow with new services and programs for its aging members. In 1974 the Dale became the first organization for seniors to offer mental health services in the United States, and continues to make strides in providing extensive resources, both physical and mental, to members of the greater Niagara area today.

This organization strives to be a resource for aging adults to obtain the mental and social stimulation that they desire in a welcoming and supportive environment. On their website, it states that they believe people need to be involved with life to remain healthy, active, and happy, and the programs and resources that the Dale offers help seniors who live alone especially to age happily. They offer a wide range of services designed to help elders age in place, including health screenings, caregiver support, telephone reassurance, exercise classes, insurance/Medicare assistance and guidance, education seminars ranging from things like driving to Alzheimers, in and out-of-state travel opportunities, the assigning of home health aides, consultations with a geriatric mental health nurse, and the dial-a-lift driving program that transports seniors who could not otherwise make it to the center at little or no to members.

Although I did not learn that much about how the Dale receives its funding from different institutions through my internship, I was able to see just how difficult it is for a not-for-profit to afford to offer the extensive kinds of services that it does. The Dale Association itself relies on funding from the Niagara County Office for the Aging, the United Way of Greater Niagara (an organization that helps to fund various mental and social health services throughout the county,) the town of Lockport, the Niagara County Department of Mental Health, and donations from the general public to afford to provide its services. Even with this seemingly plentiful number of financial resources, each organization only gives so much money to the center, and the Memory Minders program that I was involved with only receives help from two of the aforementioned organizations, meaning that my supervisor is forced to depend mostly upon donations from the public to afford to provide the elders she directs with stimulating and appreciated material. The main fundraising opportunity for the center is its weekly games of bingo, with every board sold going towards the funding of its senior services. The Dale also accepts sponsorships from businesses, but I only encountered one of these sponsorships in the funding of supplies for one of our fundraisers by a local assisted living home, proving to me that the Dale is really at the mercy of its financial supporters.

The center does strive to offer intergenerational interactions for its members with arrangements with various elementary schools in the area for meetings between elders and children and the establishing of pen pals between classrooms and groups of Dale members. It also works with various public service-type institutions like the Alzheimers Association and the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles to provide educational seminars for its members, but as far as interactions with other government organizations or local businesses goes, the majority of interaction is simply asking for support and funding. The Dale does offer long-term care guidance through its geriatric mental health nurse, senior advocate, and home health aide connections, but is mainly geared towards helping elders who are able to provide their own care but desire a reason to get out of the house.

Because the Dale is not-for-profit and relies on funding from outside organizations, that means it is also at the mercy of the competence of its volunteers. While there were about five people whom I met that received a paycheck at the Dale, many of these paid positions were only part-time, meaning that the adults who chose to work there either possessed more than one job or had a spouse also earning a paycheck for them to live comfortably, attesting to the commitment and loyalty that the Dales workers held for the organization. Formal communication was conducted through the telephone and email, while the majority of communication (informal) was conducted by volunteers simply walking down the hall to talk with the paid employees in their offices. Volunteers were in charge of answering the phone and helping people pay for various programs at the front desk, while paid employees worked in a room down the hall, meaning that a quick walk was all it took to relay messages or gossip (unless, of course, the volunteer on duty knew how to work the telephones, meaning that they could simply gossip without rising from their seats.) Even though the overall communications at the Dale were somewhat informal, I believe that this merely added to the feeling of camaraderie among workers and volunteers alike, adding to the friendly atmosphere that the center strives to maintain for its members. The center does the best it can with what it is given, and from what I saw, it is obvious that they have been given a wonderfully committed and cheerful set of volunteers and staff.

Besides the challenge of relying so heavily on the generosity of outside parties to provide their services, I think the Dale struggles with its advertising skills. As I mentioned before, I barely had any idea that the center offered senior services before researching the organization for my internship, let alone the extensive range of programs that they offer. Although the people who do attend the Dale are regulars and fully aware of the many opportunities that exist within the organization, I highly doubt the rest of Lockport knows what the Dale can do for their aging loved ones simply because of their lack of advertisement. They host bingo and blood drives and have a very informative web site, but they do not put themselves out into the community to explain what they have to offer to a large chunk of the communitys population. Part of this may be because of the older generations who work there and their lack of experience with the technology that is often so heavily relied upon in companies today for getting their names out there, but I think it is also because the Dale has a routine way of doing things, and advertising is not one of the steps in their routine.

Despite these shortcomings, I think the Dale succeeds at fulfilling its mission in many ways. It is able to turn the donations of the public into wonderful social opportunities and programs for elders, as well as offer services that vary extensively. It provides a safe place for older people of all cognitive abilities to seek counseling and advice, and does so with the help of mostly volunteers vs. paid employees. Even though it is not well-known to the majority of the community, it is very well-known to a select few, and is able to flourish with its number of services despite not being aware of its possible lack of advertising. As for the Memory Minders program itself, I think its pretty amazing that a day program that meets twice a week is able to have such a positive impact upon the lives and mental health statuses of its participants, especially because they have all been diagnosed with some sort of dementia. The Dale is able to give a handful of people the opportunity to slow and even reverse the loss of cognitive ability, and that is pretty amazing.

In working with the Memory Minders program, I was able to not only assist elders with the completion of brain exercises in the class, but was able to plan out activities for entire class periods. My supervisor went on vacation for a couple of weeks during my internship, so I was even able to run the program in her stead, providing me with beneficial experience of leading older adults in mental stimulation and the opportunity to be regarded as the boss even though I was only an intern. I gained some public speaking confidence because I am very shy, and even though I was only talking to a group of elders that I loved working with, I still had to make sure I asserted myself as the director for the day and spoke clearly enough for everyone in the room to hear and understand what I was asking of them for different projects. Planning out class meetings also gave me a glimpse of just how much effort goes into programs for elders. No matter how simple a task may seem to a participant or volunteer, I now know that hours of research and preparation go into every service that these programs offer, and the program directors have a lot on their plates. I learned that as a teacher, things definitely do not always go as planned; in fact, they usually always go in the opposite direction of what you have planned. I learned how to search for a balance in every activity I wanted to execute so that it was stimulating and rewarding for all of the class participants, regardless of the stage of dementia that they were battling. I also learned how expensive running a stimulating program like that can be, with food for snacks alone taking up a large chunk of the donated funds that are allotted, giving me a greater appreciation and reverence for activity directors across the board. Lastly, this internship provided me with the knowledge that I indeed do not wish to become an activities director. Although working with elders in this way proved to be very rewarding and hilarious, I simply do not feel comfortable leading large groups and would much rather work with people one-on-one. I also think I would run out of new ideas for seniors in programs like Memory Minders, and can only imagine how exhausting it must be for my supervisor to search for new ideas as the years go on. I was tired of trying to fill up sixteen hours worth of time over a two week period, so I can only imagine how tedious it must feel after three years! Despite this personal revelation, however, working at the Dale proved to be a very enjoyable and touching experience; the main thing I got out of this internship is that I know I definitely love working with older people, and if a validation of your choice in a major isnt a rewarding outcome for an internship, then I dont know what is.