What makes our memory care team at Gainesville’s Manor Lake Assisted Living & Memory Care so good at their beloved profession is a both an innate and learned powerful shift in perspective. Our staff is innate in their perspective because this profession draws a loving and kind heart for our challenged seniors. Our staff also is empowered by a learned perspective where we work hard to see our resident from a different perspective than some family’s.

Some family perspectives are both predictable and understandable. Some see their cherished loved one as someone who is less than they once were. We view every single resident as a whole person with much to offer. It takes patience and compassion, but if you meet them on their level, and listen to what they are telling you, and accept them in that moment, then you will get so much more from them in return.

We Help Memory Care Families Live in the Moment

It can be very frustrating for family members, because they want so badly for their loved one to remember and to be like they were. We show family members how to let go of that kind of thinking, how to meet the person where they are today, which reduces anxiety and helps the person be all that they can be, today.

Helping families in their struggle with Alzheimer’s is a component of providing care to those living with dementia and related forms of the disease. Showing family members how to successfully redirect their loved one is another valuable tool shared by Isaac and her team.

For instance, if a resident tells us, ‘I need to go home, my husband or children are waiting for me,’ our staff is trained to never correct their perceived reality. Our loving approach is to reply in some form of, “Oh, I’d love to hear about your husband or your children, tell me about them”.

Another successful tactic is to get the person engaged in their favorite pastime, craft, or job-related skill that they performed fluently at some point in their life. Asking a man who worked as a contractor in his professional life for help with a simple mechanical task affords a sense of accomplishment and importance.

Of course, ours is a complicated profession. But it is simple at its core. We familiarize ourselves in depth regarding who our residents were. We accept and celebrate the person as they are now. And we seek to bridge their two worlds into a reality that inspires happiness.

Our mutual love and admiration for our seniors here at Gainesville’s Manor Lake Assisted Living and Memory Care binds you and us as a team.