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Best Retirement Living: Sleep Study at The Osher Inn Assisted Living by Katie Druan, Life Enrichment Coordinator at The Osher Inn A good night’s sleep will cure most anything that ails you. It is a common experience that the way a person feels during the day is in direct relationship to the amount and quality of sleep that they had the night prior. To explore the topic further, The Osher Inn Assisted Living at The Cedars hosted Occupational Therapy students from the University of New England for a four session program that involved residents keeping a simple sleep log and having interactive discussions with the students about what can be done to improve the quality of sleep. The program is optional and open to all Osher Inn residents. After recording in their log, residents will have a better idea of their individual sleep patterns as well as learn tips...
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Partnering with the Friends School of Portland by Kimberly Doyon, Life Enrichment Coordinator at The Cedars The Life Enrichment Department at The Cedars is partnering with the Friends School of Portland to offer an exciting new, intergenerational program for the residents at the Skilled Care Center at The Cedars. On the first Wednesday of every month, 15 first and second grade students from Friends have been visiting with our nursing home residents to share the lessons they are learning in school. Examples include reading one on one, singing, drama skits and puppet shows, and games. Our goal has been to assure the same studentsmeet with the same residents each month so a therapeutic relationship can bemade and fostered. These friendly visits started in January, with each student arriving with a story that they had written about their lives which they then read to a resident. Over the past few months,...
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Members and Residents at The Cedars are finding that going back to school has its advantages. It allows them to pursue interests they’ve always had or to learn something new that they were curious about but never had time for. There is the added motivation, however, from studies that suggest learning may actually help them stave off cognitive decline such as Alzheimer’s disease. A recent article in the New York Times, Exercising an Aging Brain (March 8, 2012), states that many studies have found exercising the brain and being mentally active are associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Arthur Toga, a professor of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles explains that by having aninteractive conversation, you are changing the circuitry of your brain becausethe activity requires the nerve cells in your brain to fire, thereby using energyand delivering more blood flow and oxygen to your...
Posted in our blog on by Katharine& filed under Featured.
How to Help Elderly Drivers Limit or Stop Driving For many families, telling an elderly parent it’s time to give up the car keys is a very sensitive and difficult topic. While there’s no one simple way to handle this issue, here are a number of tips and resources you can try to help ease your dad away from driving. Take a Ride To get a clear picture of your dad’s driving abilities, the first thing you need to do is take a ride with him watching for problem areas. For example: Does he drive too slow or too fast? Does he tailgate or drift between lanes? Does he have difficulty seeing, backing up or changing lanes? Does he react slowly? Does he get distracted or confused easily? Also, has your dad had any fender benders or tickets lately, or have you noticed any dents or scrapes on his...
