Founders Place aims to reconnect participants to themselves

As a growing percentage of the population is aging, respite care is becoming more important, including in the Birmingham metro area. To meet that need and to better serve the local community, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church created Founders Place, a respite care ministry. 

Susanna Whitsett, executive director of Founders Place, said the ministry is designed for individuals with mild to moderate memory loss. The program begins April 30.

“It will be for people who probably most likely will be older, but certainly we see dementia starting in people as young as late 40s,” she said. 

The idea for the ministry started in 2017 but came about after St. Luke’s finished remodeling and had a “beautiful, newly renovated space.” Whitsett said they wanted to find something worthy for which to use it. They recognized other similar programs had waiting lists and knew a respite ministry could be within the scope of their care.

Whitsett said her idea for the program is to be similar to a camp, with different activities planned for each day. She hopes to incorporate “a lot of creative outlets,” she said, like painting, storytelling, music and singing, and to help people awaken their imagination. She also wants to help participants reconnect to both their environment and themselves.

“This really helps people with memory loss to retain their functions,” she said. “Laughing and talking, it helps people to overcome pain and fear. … Research shows that cognitively enhancing experiences help retain function, increase energy, lift one’s mood, improves sleep and gives a better sense of well-being.”

She also wants to work with the abilities that participants still exhibit. Whether or not someone can sing all the words to a song or simply hum the tune doesn’t matter — the small interactions and celebrations of abilities “really equal more than the sum of their parts,” Whitsett said.

Programs like this are particularly helpful, Whitsett said, because those with memory loss can become doubly marginalized — once for age, and once for their state of mind.

“And they become more and more isolated as their sense of self dwindles,” she said.

Family members sometimes pull away, too, not necessarily because they don’t still feel the love, but because what was once a familiar connection may be missing.

“In addition to giving care partners a break, … Founders Place will also give them back their loved one in body and spirit that we hope is better than when they brought them to the start of the session,” Whitsett said.

The goal, she said, is to have a place of joy in the community and to engage the senses while re-establishing a connection to the immediate environment. Above all, Whitsett wants it to be a safe and secure program that increases a sense of comfort.

“They may not be able to recall past experiences,” Whitsett said, “but that inner self, that has retained the emotional landscape, and that is what we recognize, what we celebrate and support.”

Founders Place will operate twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at $40 per day, and additional days may be added depending on the popularity. Classes will have between six and 12 participants, and scholarships are available. 

Participants must meet criteria for the program: can function cooperatively in a group setting, use the bathroom independently and be mobile either by walking, using a walker, wheelchair or cane.

The ministry is not a medical program, she said, and instead will function as a social program. All volunteers will go through a background check and be extensively trained. Whitsett said no one will be dispensing medication. Rather, volunteers will give verbal cues to help participants remember to take any medication that is necessary for them.

For more information, go to saint-lukes.com/founders-place1.