Stoney Brook shows off memory care facility

By PAMELA GRANT

Cove Leader-Press

Last Thursday night, Stoney Brook opened its memory care facility to the public with a baseball-themed open house. The open house began at 5:30 p.m. and ran until 7 p.m. Stoney Brook provided baseball-themed snacks and refreshments for the open house. Singing Cowboy Freddie Fuller provided musical entertainment. The event served to allow members of the community to check out the facility’s memory care facility and ask any questions they might have about it. “When people think of Stoney Brook, they think of a nursing home automatically, but we’re not,” said Kayla Wright, the Community Marketing Director at Stoney Brook. “It’s an apartment complex. We’re a community. We are a community to help with the senior citizens.” As part of the open house, the assisted living facility showed off a room in the memory care facility. Residents live in their own rooms which they can decorate in any way they choose. The rooms more closely resemble an apartment room and family members are welcome to come and stay in the room. The facility offers everyday services to residents to include cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and taking care of anything relating to their health. They also offer their memory care residents 24-hour supervision. Stoney Brook offers several activities to help keep residents engaged. Activities include gardening, games and tournaments, a music memory program and a living memory photo program. The event also helped kick off the living facility’s Alzheimer and dementia support group. Stoney Brook wants to open a closer support group for them because otherwise, the closest one is in Harker Heights. Residents with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia sometimes have difficulty recalling memories that are very important to them. Stoney Brook has programs geared towards encouraging a sense of belonging and purpose, relationships with others, meaningful activities and a sense of self. Residents of the memory care facility are each provided with a shadow box called a “memory box” outside of their room. The box is decorated by By PAMELA GRANT Cove Leader-Press Last Thursday night, Stoney Brook opened its memory care facility to the public with a baseball-themed open house. The open house began at 5:30 p.m. and ran until 7 p.m. Stoney Brook provided baseball-themed snacks and refreshments for the open house. Singing Cowboy Freddie Fuller provided musical entertainment. The event served to allow members of the community to check out the facility’s memory care facility and ask any questions they might have about it. “When people think of Stoney Brook, they think of a nursing home automatically, but we’re not,” said Kayla Wright, the Community Marketing Director at Stoney Brook. “It’s an apartment complex. We’re a community. We are a community to help with the senior citizens.” As part of the open house, the assisted living facility showed off a room in the memory care facility. Residents live in their own rooms which they can decorate in any way they choose. The rooms more closely resemble an apartment room and family members are welcome to come and stay in the room. The facility offers everyday services to residents to include cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and taking care of anything relating to their health. They also offer their memory care residents 24-hour supervision. Stoney Brook offers several activities to help keep residents engaged. Activities include gardening, games and tournaments, a music memory program and a living memory photo program. The event also helped kick off the living facility’s Alzheimer and dementia support group. Stoney Brook wants to open a closer support group for them because otherwise, the closest one is in Harker Heights. Residents with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia sometimes have difficulty recalling memories that are very important to them. Stoney Brook has programs geared towards encouraging a sense of belonging and purpose, relationships with others, meaningful activities and a sense of self. Residents of the memory care facility are each provided with a shadow box called a “memory box” outside of their room. The box is decorated by family members with items that might trigger memories. Wright said that even though the patients have Alzheimer’s or dementia doesn’t mean thatthey cannot have their memories  triggered with images or items that were important to them. Gertie Drain’s father Walter M. Haley Jr. (97) is a resident at the memory care facility in Stoney Brook. He served in World War II and the Korean War and fought with Merrill’s Marauders. Drain said that throughout his life Haley Jr. enjoyed playing pool and bowling and lived an active life until he was 89 years old. Although Drain regrets having her father live at the facility, she said that it’s a really great place. She said that the staff members are all great and that she likes that her father is still able to be very independent while at the facility. “It’s like home. They are more independent here,” said Drain about Stoney Brook. “I love it. It’s the best place. There’s always something to stimulate him, and the people here treat him wonderfully.”