Hao Djur

I found out about Aldersgate from a club that I am in called the Allied Health club. The

presidents of the club called in Brian, a volunteer coordinator at Aldersgate to come to the

university to give us an orientation, so we could start volunteering. The orientation lasted around

thirty minutes and at the end he gave us the e-mail addresses of the volunteer coordinators in

charge of the five continuum of care centers allowing us to them.

The five continuum of care at Aldersgate includes assisted living, skilled nursing,

memory care, rehabilitation, and home care. From all our choices, my friends and I came

together and decided to volunteer at the memory care unit.

The memory care unit has three neighborhoods inside the building. The neighborhoods

are all connected by a small open area that is made to look like a shopping center. There are

about ten residents in each neighborhood, which makes about thirty individuals all together. I

chose to volunteer at this specific continuum of care because I had never met anyone who had

Alzheimer’s and since I am passionate about the medical field, I thought it would be the perfect

opportunity to learn more about how the disease affects individuals. In total, I volunteered for

twelve hours at Aldersgate by talking to the residents and playing bingo with them during their

Saturday mornings.

Aldersgate is a retirement community here in the city. The agency strives to provide a

continuing care retirement community, so that individuals can live their life independently, but

have medical nursing services available if it’s needed. This agency serves retired adults who

want to live in the Charlotte area.

Since I only dedicated my time to volunteer at the memory care unit, I was exposed to

residents who were going through the different forms of dementia. Some of the residents living

in the facility have the most common form of dementia known as Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s is the only cause of death that cannot be prevented, cured or slowed. It

affects women more than men and one in three seniors dies from the disease. Since Alzheimer’s

does not discriminate, it is a community issue. One in ten individuals 65 and older is diagnosed

with the disease. Alzheimer’s starts when plagues gradually build up in the brain. It starts at the

hippocampus, which controls emotions and memories. Then it slowly moves around and alters

other areas of the brain. Having a retirement community such as Aldersgate to provide a place

for individuals with Alzheimer’s is helpful because these residents are in a safe and secure

environment. Likewise having a nursing staff at the center all the time allows the residents to be

in a safe environment. Since there is no cure for the disease, Aldersgate is allowing these

individuals to live their life with available staff to assist with their specific medical care.

When I think about how neat and clean the facility that houses the residents, it makes me

wonder about the individuals who cannot afford to live in a community like Aldersgate. There

are many challenges such as trying to remember oneself with the disease. And if someone in

poverty is living with the disease it must be harder because the person is not in a safe

environment to deal with a disease that could possibly be fatal. According to Aldersgates’

reviews the agency accepts Medicare. For individuals who are 65 and older and are eligible to

receive Medicare, then they are able to live in a comfortable environment such as Aldersgate.

However, there are programs that assist retired individuals who are in poverty and living with

Alzheimer’s. One program called Dollar More helps recipients with low income and who have

special needs to pay their utility bills. There weren’t many programs to assist individuals with

Alzheimer’s and living in poverty, and to me that is an issue. I think that when we realize how

Alzheimer’s takes over an individual and can even take away their ability to walk then we are

more likely to help try to create programs that assist the ones living with the disease and living in

the poverty line, too.

The residents that I talk to do not remember who I am each time I come back to visit.

Some of them remember my name during our conversations, but those are usually the ones who

are more cognitive. However, there was one resident who started reminiscing about his life, and

he said that the 9/11 event was the reason World War III started. Immediately after he said this,

my friend and I looked at each other and mutually decided to not correct him. We learned from

the nurses to go along with what the residents are saying to prevent upsetting and confusing

them.

I believe that talking to volunteers from Aldersgate is a good way to articulate about

Alzheimer’s disease because volunteers see how the disease changes an individual. For instance,

there are two females residents that the nurses call “the golden girls.” When I first talked to them

they were talkative and both were kind. However after the first bingo game we played one of the

golden girls couldn’t stop shouting out mean comments at a resident. It was strange to hear

because I know the lady is sweet, and I know that having Alzheimer’s causes her lose her ability

to control her mood. Although it was weird to hear her inappropriate comments, it was more

upsetting for me because I knew it wasn’t her who said those comments.

Reading about service learning in class has showed me that it helps to volunteer since it

allows me to become more aware. My goal for the class is to be a more aware citizen because I

think knowing about something changes you and motivates you to be an active individual. My

service experience at Aldersgate has made me more aware about how dementia and Alzheimer’s

impacts the senior citizens in our community.

My initial expectations prior to my service experience was how surprising the residents

can be, which Brian emphasized at his orientation. He said the residents living at the memory

care place said the most unexpected comments, and I wanted see what Brian was talking about,

which was my other reason for choosing to volunteer at the memory care unit.

While volunteering my expectations stayed the same because I was able to witness some

of the residents saying surprising things to one another. It shocked me at first, but I got used to

the residents talking to each other like they didn’t like one another. This semester has taught me

a lot about poverty and since there are not many programs for seniors living in poverty with

Alzheimer’s disease, I feel like there should be more available assistance. But there are not many

to help the homeless and knowing this upsets me. However, I now know more about the disease

and hopefully I can try to give more of my time to volunteer and possibly start a program like

Aldersgate, but for the ones who do not have Medicare or cannot afford to live in a retirement

community.