A Decade of MindAlert Award Winners

2001

The Adult Activities Center Adult Day Services of Orange County (ADSOC)

Huntington Beach, Calif.

Alzheimer's Family Services Center (AFSC) is a private nonprofit organization offering comprehensive care, support, education, and outreach services for persons with Alzheimer's Disease or another dementia and their families. Early-stage services include: the New Connections Club, a specialized day program for active early-stage individuals able to engage in a physically and mentally challenging set of therapeutic activities; JumpStart, ongoing weekly parallel support group sessions for early-stage individuals and their care partners; Caregiving Essentials, a monthly three-hour class geared toward informal caregivers of loved ones with Alzheimer's Disease or another dementia; and Adjusting to the Diagnosis, a three-time set of counseling sessions designed to help persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or early Alzheimer's Disease come to terms with the diagnosis and prepare for the future.

Mind Your Mind: Workshops for Mental Fitness

Beatrice Seagull

Mind Your Mind is a systematic, well-rounded mental activity program that promotes mental fitness in older adults. Since 1992, Beatrice Seagull, professor emeritus at Rutgers University, New Jersey, has presented Mind Your Mind workshops to nearly 2,000 participants in adult community facilities. The program emphasizes elders' potential for self-improvement, based on the benefits of continued intellectual stimulation. It offers a combination of practical exercise, factual information, and strategic support. Its primary motivation is not just "Use it or lose it!" but "Use it and improve it!"

Elder Rehab

Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

This is a cognitive, language, physical fitness, and "partnered volunteering" program for people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's Disease. The purpose is to improve the quality of life of people with dementia, as well as for their caregivers, and to slow the rate of cognitive decline.

My Turn Program

Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Kingsborough Community College is a comprehensive college emphasizing liberal arts and vocational education. My Turn students are a part of the tuition-free college education program for New York state residents who are sixty years of age and older. See lengthier description in the 2006 entry.

Rivier Institute for Senior Education (RISE)

Rivier College, Nashua, N.H.

RISE is part of the Institute for Learning in Retirement movement, which includes about 250 organizations in the United States and Canada. Participation in RISE has grown from eighty-four students the first semester, to 238 in September 2000. The program offers a ten-week series of classes each fall and spring-more than thirty course offerings per semester-for people older than age fifty-five. Approximately 75 percent of all classes are taught by RISE members.

2002

Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease Support Groups

Robyn Yale, Clinical Social Worker and Consultant

One of the first support group models for individuals in the early stages of Alzheimer's and their families has been the most widely replicated nationally and internationally. Robyn Yale's book, Developing Support Groups for Individuals with Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease, training workshops, and materials have made the program easy to replicate, and it has proliferated in such settings as Alzheimer's Association chapters, diagnostic clinics, senior centers, and assisted living facilities. Many say that Yale's work facilitated a movement that has changed the face of care and support provided to those with Alzheimer's: her work has given a voice to people with the disease.

The Mind Works Mental Fitness Program

Connie Lynch, Ph.D., San Francisco Bay Area

Just as physical fitness is body conditioning through physical exercise, The Mind Works Mental Fitness Program is brain conditioning through mental exercise. The program uses various thinking skills including awareness, communication abilities, curiosity or inquisitiveness, and the willingness to accept mental challenges. Members of the Mind Works program indicate that they have more self-confidence and selfesteem as they master the challenges. They also report that their memories have improved and that they are more aware of their surroundings.

Generations on Line

Philadelphia, Pa.

Generations on Line has simplified the Internet for elders through an educational software program that provides on-screen, step-by step instruction. This self-teaching software program helps older adults overcome barriers of access, skill, and intimidation that prevent them from using and enjoying the Internet. This program and its adjunct materials are available in nursing homes, HUD-subsidized housing, retirement communities, senior centers, and public libraries through a subscription rate paid to the nonprofit.

Lasell Village

Lasell College, Auburndale, Mass.

Located on the Lasell College campus, the Village was the first "living and learning" Continuous Care Retirement Community. Village residents are required to plan and satisfy a continued learning program as a condition of residency.

2003

CyberSeniors/CyberTeens CyberHealth, CyberSeniors.org

Portland, Maine

This program's intergenerational partnership raised awareness of the many ways computer and Internet technologies can help elders retain independence as they age; provided training resources that allowed elders to develop computer skills at their own pace; taught elders how to locate and use meaningful content about health and well-being on the Internet, and communicate safely online. Available in Spanish and English, CyberHealth was an inclusive, community-based, interactive health literacy program.

Creativity and Dementia

University of British Columbia, North Vancouver, B.C.

The concept linking creativity with dementia care was developed by Dr. Dalia Gottlieb-Tanaka in the late 1990s. This concept promotes the use of creative expression in older adults with dementia. Programs that are built on this premise provide opportunities for people with dementia to socialize, express themselves, and be valued. Two specific programs were highlighted for the award-a training workshop for caregivers of seniors with dementia, and an exhibit of art produced by elders with dementia, which is sponsored by the Society for the Arts in Dementia Care.

Autobiographical Studies Program

UCLA Center on Aging and UCLA Extension, Education Division, Thousand Oaks, Calif.

The Birren Autobiographical Studies program enriches the lives of adults through writing, sharing, and preserving life stories and experiences. The program is based on Guided Autobiography, a course that helps individuals organize their life stories. Participants are led through life themes and priming questions to evoke memories. Writing and sharing life stories releases cognitive and motivational potential among students, and, as one student said, "I gained a great deal of self understanding and regained memories I might never have otherwise appreciated."

2004

Senior Peer Counseling

Center for Healthy Aging, Santa Monica, Calif.

While not new, peer counseling appeals to older adults who need emotional support, yet are uncomfortable with professional psychiatric services. The peer counselors benefit by learning new skills, interacting with other counselors, becoming involved in an important community service, and developing valuable relationships with clients. This program is innovative in its focus on self-awareness and self-learning.

The Buddy Program

Northwestern University Cognitive Neurology & Alzheimer's Disease Center, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Ill.

The Buddy Program matches first-year medical students with individuals diagnosed with early Alzheimer's Disease or related dementias. It allows students and diagnosed individuals to get to know each other on a personal rather than a clinical level. The Buddy Program helps meet intellectual and social needs by offering a mentoring opportunity for a person with dementia within a preferred level of activity suited to their capacity. The Buddy Program provides participating students with increased knowledge about Alzheimer's, as well as positive experiences with persons with dementia.

The Illuminated Life

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii

The Illuminated Life workshop is a comprehensive, structured life-review program designed to help independent older persons enhance psychological functioning. The workshop's retrospective-proactive orientation assists participants in gathering insights about their lives, in order to consider creative post-retirement roles, and integrate a lifetime of learning. Research conducted in 2000 with older women who completed the workshop showed significant gain on a measure of psychological well-being in contrast to a control group showing no change.

2005

TimeSlips

Center on Age and Community, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wis.

The TimeSlips creative storytelling method opens storytelling to everyone by replacing the pressure to remember with encouragement to imagine. TimeSlips is used in all types of settings: adult day services, senior centers, memory clubs, support groups, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living, and intergenerational groups. Facilitators ask open-ended questions about a provocative image or idea and weave all responses (verbal or gestural) into a story. TimeSlips concentrates on the individual and strengthens teamwork among staff-from direct-care workers, housekeeping and nutrition staff, and chaplains, to activity staff, social workers, nurses, and administrators. Research shows that TimeSlips storytelling sessions improve the quality and quantity of interactions between staff and residents with dementia, and improve staff attitudes toward working with people with dementia.

Mental Fitness for Life: 7 Steps to Healthy Aging

Simon Frazier University at Harbour Centre, Vancouver, B.C.

This program engages older adults in progressive steps to mental fitness through a series of warm-up activities-quizzes and puzzles followed by one of seven key components of mental fitness-and concluding with practical activities to incorporate the program into a daily routine. One of the early programs teaching mental wellness, Mental Fitness has been replicated throughout North America.

Memory Difficulties: Should I Be Worried?

Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.

The curriculum developed for Oregon State Extension Service reaches multiple urban and rural audiences throughout Oregon and other state extension services with information on normal aging and memory loss.

VOCAL (Voices of Community Action and Leadership)

Westchester Public/Private Partnership for Aging Services, Mt. Vernon, N.Y.

The VOCAL program promoted intergenerational advocacy for aging-related issues, and sought to strengthen the capacity of people of all ages to participate in government and keep communities vibrant. The program provided stimulating, meaningful action that enhanced cognitive functioning through active engagement in current issues and events.

2006

Focus on SPECS: Social, Physical, Emotional, Cognitive, & Spiritual

Macklin Intergenerational Institute, Findlay, Ohio

The SPECS program promotes multi-age connections and creates opportunities for individuals to develop socially, physically, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually. This enriched environment is a stimulating, age-integrated setting that provides care and ongoing interactions for children and older adults. Both young and old thrive and benefit as multi-generational interactions promote self-esteem and confidence, and improve physical and cognitive function.

Staying Sharp

AARP and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, Washington, D.C.

Staying Sharp is a joint project of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and NRTA: AARP's Educator Community. It focuses on understanding how the brain works, and how to maximize brain function and brain health, particularly in the second half of life. Staying Sharp disseminates its message through a coordinated multimedia effort that includes live presentations, the Web, TV broadcasts, and print materials. Leading neuroscientists conduct informal discussions about the brain to audiences of 200 to 400 people. Staying Sharp has five core publications (English- and Spanish-language versions) that target critical aspects of cognitive fitness. Staying Sharp also has print and e-books available on its website (http://cq5.share.aarp.org/aarp/NRTA/ NRTA_programs/staying_sharp/articles/nrta_staying_sharp.html).

My Turn

Kingsborough Community College, Brooklyn, N.Y.

My Turn is one of the first programs in America to offer a college educational experience to older adults, and serves about 2,000 older students in four semesters each academic year. The program began as an educational offering for older adults, and quickly evolved into a multi-dimensional experience including participation in the My Turn Club, volunteering in a variety of positions at the college like Talking Buddies, which is a collaborative project with the English as a Second Language (ESL) Program. In My Turn Outreach, Kingsborough College professors travel to a local nursing home and offer monthly lectures. My Turn demonstrates that learning can take place in the classroom, over conversations, while volunteering, and at home.

2007

Songwriting Works

Port Townsend, Wash.

Songwriting Works Educational Foundation advocates for and provides full access to creative music programs for a diverse spectrum of elders across the cognitive and health spectrum, their family, friends, health providers, and advocates. Songwriting Works gives elders, including those with early- to late-stage dementia, new forums for self-expression, experience in the arts, and an opportunity to leave a legacy of story and song. Through highly interactive exchange, the facilitator solicits ideas for topics, themes, and musical genres. Elders direct the sessions as their remarks are recorded on easel pads; melodies spring from the group and are repeated and refined to match words. Songwriting Works also offers Music for Wellness and Songwriting for Cognitive Fitness programs and trains health and music professionals in facilitating the Songwriting Works method.

Everyday Memory Clinic

Institute on Aging at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.

The Everyday Memory Clinic has trained more than 400 older adults in using learned memory skills. Participants report increased confidence and feelings of control over memory, increased use of memory strategies, and improved memory test scores. Participants also retain these gains over time. This was the first training program to show gains in both beliefs (confidence and control) and test scores. This practical model enhances the basic memory skills required for independent living, as we age.

The Intergenerational School

Cleveland, Ohio

The Intergenerational School (TIS) is breaking new ground in the fields of public education and intergenerational programs as a model of lifelong learning, intergenerational health, and purposeful aging. The only known public intergenerational school in the United States, TIS builds volunteering by older adults and other community members, including college and pre-professional students, into the structure of the K-8 educational experience. The school provides meaningful activities for adults and also improves the children's academic skills and instills a profound sense of caring and respect across generations.

2008

Borchardt Cyber Caf�

St. Barnabas Senior Center of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif.

This program uses innovative intergenerational training where children act as mentors to older immigrant adults and teach them how to navigate online to access newspapers in their native language. Also included is a video program for youth and elders to document their lives and learning.

The Dancing Heart: Vital Elders Moving in Community

Kairos Dance Theatre, Minneapolis, Minn.

The Dancing Heart is an intergenerational dance company reaching out to people with dementia and engaging elders in creating seated dance and movement. This program exemplifies inclusion and equity by allowing people with varied abilities to explore how dance, music, and story revitalize and bring communities together, resulting in measurable health benefits and cost of care savings.

Senior Center Without Walls

Oakland, Calif.

Senior Center Without Walls (SCWW) offers activities, friendly conversation, and an assortment of classes and support groups to homebound elders and those who find it difficult to go to a community senior center. From the comfort of their homes, they connect to SCWW using their own telephones.

2009

The Memory Academy

Castro Valley, Calif.

The Memory Academy is a sustainable, accessible, and affordable research-based educational program dispensing information to students on neuroscience, aging, and memory. It provides an opportunity for students to practice activities that can help them stay strong, sharp, and independent by enhancing mental and physical fitness. Students learn about changes that accompany aging, and ways to adapt to them. Lectures explore the causes of memory problems, brain function and anatomy, and the effects of stress, nutrition, and laughter. There are also discussions incorporating the latest research on aging, Alzheimer's, and other dementias. The Academy provides group activities encouraging social interaction and individual activities-from Sudoku to juggling-that challenge minds by engaging and working all parts of the brain and the body.

Gerontechnology Consortium of Westchester

United Hebrew Geriatric Center, New Rochelle, N.Y.

This consortium is a collaboration of several New York organizations and universities formed to connect older adults to technology through civic engagement, in an intergenerational environment. Specially trained undergraduates assist older adults with overcoming technology fears through a series of one-on-one personal contacts, assistive software, and other technologies. The project is centered around a hands-on learning gerontechnology course for undergraduates to better understand the aging process, gain skills in instructing elders, and learn computing technology, while older adults benefit from an individualized and non-threatening learning environment. The students demonstrate improved perceptions of older people, and are introduced to career opportunities in the field of aging.

Performing Arts at University of Delaware Academy of Lifelong Learning

University of Delaware, Wilmington, Del.

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Delaware (formerly Academy of Lifelong Learning) offers opportunities for older adults to express themselves, build cognitive reserve, and form social connections through an expansive Performing Arts program that is integrated into the academic curriculum. A desire to participate is the only prerequisite for members.

Stagebridge

Oakland, Calif.

Founded in 1978, Stagebridge is the premier senior theater in the nation, and the only professional theater training company for older adults on the West Coast. The company comprises about 150 actors and storytellers who average seventy years of age. The company's "Storybridge" program is a nationally acclaimed model for bringing older adults into schools as storytellers to mentor children. The Performing Arts Training Program (PATI) provides a curriculum of training in a wide range of performing arts classes (acting, storytelling, playwriting, dance, improv, and singing). PATI also creates additional opportunities to engage elders by training older professional artists to teach performing arts classes throughout the Bay Area elder community.

2010

SeniorWISE

University of Texas Foundation, Austin, Tex.

SeniorWISE (Wisdom is Simply Exploration) was a five-year longitudinal research study to determine whether or not memory training improves the memory performance and function of older adults. SeniorWISE followed 265 seniors for two years, 140 of whom participated in an eight-week memory class. They were evaluated on their performance on a number of real-world memory tasks, such as dialing telephone numbers and reading medication labels. The memory-training group made significant improvements in cognitive function, use of memory strategies, memory self-efficacy, functional ability, and decreased symptoms of depression. Minority elders in the treatment group were significantly less anxious and showed distinct memory improvement.

Let's Talk

Alzheimer's Association, St. Louis, Mo.

Let's Talk is an innovative and cost-effective peer-to-peer telephone support program by and for people who have early-stage dementia or memory loss. It is a strengths-based model that builds on and supports intact social skills of people with early-stage dementia. Trained call volunteers, who themselves have mild memory loss, offer twice monthly telephone-based support to call recipients, who also have memory loss. Memoryimpaired "buddies" share coping strategies, provide emotional support, offer friendship, and empower one another through sharing their personal experiences. The program reaches underserved, low-income individuals who are minority, live rurally, are homebound, are socially isolated, and who are living alone.

Active Generations

The Oasis Institute, St. Louis, Mo.

Since its founding in 1982, OASIS has become one of the most experienced and successful organizations providing lifelong learning and service opportunities for mature adults. Active Generations, an intergenerational nutrition and activity program, engages elders in the fight against childhood obesity by partnering the adults with children in third to fifth grades to implement a nationally recognized school nutrition and physical activity curriculum. This program serves the "whole person," and supports activities needed to improve physical health for older adults, while offering other elements that support long-term cognitive health, such as social engagement, encouragement of healthy diet choices, and community-based support systems.