ARTICLE: FLORIDA: Care Club Gives Those With Memory Disorders A Place To Spend The Day
Naples Daily News, FL
By BETH FRANCIS, [log in to unmask]
May 16, 2004

Bea Aquino loves the time she spends at the club. She beamed as she sat at a table with her two best buddies a the club
a couple of weeks ago. They were attending a high tea in honor of Mother's Day. The tables were decorated with pink and
white tablecloths and the women wore pink carnations made of tissue paper.

The women were animated as they recalled stories of bringing up their children.

Aquino, 72, told her friends she had four children. Activities assistant Pat Akers led an awards contest, giving out
small stuffed animals to the woman with the most children, the most grandchildren and so on.

This isn't just any club, though. And the tea party was more than just for entertainment.

The Care Club is an adult day care for people with memory disorders resulting from Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's
disease and stroke. You'd never know it, though, as the women smiled and talked while munching on cookies and sipping
hot tea.

That's the whole idea at the Care Club — to make the clients, or "members," as they are called, feel as normal as
possible.

Not only was the tea party for fun, it was part of an ongoing effort to stimulate their minds and get them talking and
reminiscing about their pasts.

"Whatever we can do to get them reminiscing, we do," said LuAnne Wahlstrom, executive director. "Their long-term memory
is more intact, so they can remember things from the past more easily. It's important to them to talk about their
lives; it gives them a sense of worth, and to be able to walk away at the end of the day with a sense of worth is so
important to someone who is losing so much so quickly."

Aquino said she loves coming to Care Club.

"I was very upset when I was first told to come here, but now I'm turned completely around," Aquino said. "I've made
new friends. There's a lot of closeness here, and we have fun. We dance, we sing, we play games."

Aquino's daughter, Barbara Connors, said Care Club is a godsend. In addition to taking care of her mother, Connors
raises two children as a single mother. Aquino was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about five years ago, but it wasn't until
the last year that Aquino's condition progressed so that Connors was reluctant to leave her at home during the day
while she worked.

"I work full-time, and if she were home I'd be worried all day that she might wander off somewhere and get lost,"
Connors said. "With Care Club, I know she's in a safe place. She seems to enjoy it, so not only is she safe, she's
happy."

Wahlstrom said the Care Club is so important because it can prevent or at least delay the need for clients to be placed
in nursing homes. The longer they can continue to live with their families and come to a place like Care Club, the
better their quality of life, she said. Clients can attend Care Club until their behavior becomes uncontrollable or
they need constant medical attention.

The clients now at Care Club range in age from 50 to 103. From 25 to 30 people come to Care Club this time of year
since it's out of season, but during the winter months Care Club fills up to the 41 clients it is licensed to care for.


Wahlstrom established the nonprofit adult day-care center in Golden Gate 13 years ago in memory of her grandmothers.
Both had Alzheimer's, and both wound up in nursing homes because a facility like the Care Club wasn't available to
them.

"Care Club helps patients and care givers," she said. "The care-givers get a break so they can be rejuvenated and the
clients get socialization, which is so important.

"One of the first things they do is quit talking, which is so sad because they are afraid they will make a fool of
themselves. When they are at Care Club, it's a no-fail environment. They are reaffirmed no matter what they say."

Care Club is open Monday through Saturday. Cost is based on a sliding scale and can range from $10 to $45 a day.

The activities at Care Club are structured, which helps the members remember the routine.

The morning begins with breakfast. Next comes group time, when all the members settle into lounge chairs and sofas that
line what can only be described as a huge living room.

On a recent Friday, the date, May 7, and a saying for the day was written on a dry-erase board. Activities assistant
Pat Akers read the date and recited the saying: "Being a Christian is a journey, not a destination."

Next, Akers asked the clients questions about religious trivia. Some of the clients snoozed in their chairs. Others sat
on the edge of their seats ready to answer questions.

After an hour or so of that and singing, the group normally breaks into parts, with some playing games and others doing
crafts, depending on their level of functioning.

After lunch, there is a rest time, followed by some sort of entertainment — puppet shows, piano playing or even dancing
to the tunes of keyboard and guitar.

Dancing is one of the favorite activities at the Care Club. Tom Williams, who goes by "Coach" at the club, said he
loves dancing.

"This is a place to open your mind," he said. "I like to dance with all these girls. Look, they're all around."

Many of the members, too shy to dance, tapped their feet in their seats a couple of weeks ago to the tunes of a
keyboard player Sherry Sapienza and guitar player Gerri Prod, who together make up the band "Tortuga Bay." Staffer
Robbie Caldwell, a staffer at Care Club, dressed in a yellow and orange wig and pointy sunglasses, pulled reluctant
clients to their feet to dance.

"You have to be part-actor to do this job," he said.

As fun as the activities may be at Care Club, some "members" are reluctant to come. Because some are too proud, they
come under the pretense that they are volunteering or working at the club.

Assistant director Mindy Johnson remembers one member fondly who would come to Care Club only if he felt he was working
there. His wife gave Johnson money every week, which she would pay him at the end of the week.

Joe Fazio convinces his wife, Shirley, to come to Care Club a few times a week by convincing her she is volunteering
there. She has volunteered all her life, so it seems a natural progression.

"It's benevolent lying," he said. "I tell her she needs to be here for her own well-being, which is true."

Truth be told, it's for Joe Fazio's well-being, too.

"The Care Club gives me the break I need," he said. "I get terribly strung out and short-fused at times. I'm losing my
wife of more than 50 years. She really doesn't understand love anymore. Instead, she's desperately needy. Sometimes I
raise my voice at her and I feel guilty. But with Care Club I get the break I need so desperately."

SOURCE: Naples Daily News, FL
http://tinyurl.com/2n32v

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