Michelle Cornelius joins Suzanne from Phoenix to talk about occupational and social wellness for those with dementia. Michelle is VP of Memory Care at Cogir Senior Living. Michelle talks about ways that occupational wellness — having a sense of purpose, accomplishment, and reason for getting up each day — can be incorporated in the social calendars of people with dementia at senior living communities.

"For example, we had one guy with dementia who used to teach line dancing classes. We scheduled him on the calendar to teach line dancing. He didn't remember what he had taught the previous week, the residents didn't remember what he'd taught them the previous week, he's taught the same two measures of the song in the course every week, and the residents loved it. It didn't matter that they were relearning something that they had already done.

"I had another woman who did that with crocheting. She was the head, and it had her name on it, so it was Crocheting with the resident's name on the calendar. She didn't know how to turn her rows any more, so she would do that initial row, and when she'd get to the end, she'd stop, and we'd say that's our time for the week, and next week we're going to turn and start over, and we just did it every week. She taught us the same thing. And the residents were learning."

The Vitality Revolution podcast series is sponsored by Humana.

Hear more:
Michelle Cornelius episodes on Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/tag/michelle-cornelius/
Social Wellness episodes: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/social-wellness/
Occupational Wellness episodes: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/occupational-wellness/

Learn more:
Cogir Senior Living: https://www.cogirseniorliving.com/
Michelle Cornelius: https://cadencesl.com/cadence-living-hires-michelle-cornelius-as-vp-of-memory-care-engagement/
The Vitality Revolution podcast series: https://answersforelders.com/vitality-revolution/
Humana: https://www.humana.com/
Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/welcome-to-answers-for-elders/

You can reach Michelle Cornelius at mcornelius@cogirusa.com.

Answers for Elders is part of the SeniorResource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/

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