Home > Fall 2009 Newsletter |
|
| From The Program Director |
     |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dear Readers,
I am pleased to report that despite economic conditions, we have been more successful than
ever in providing services to individuals with dementia, their families and caregivers. Here are
just a few highlights from the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009.
We built our capacity to serve communities of color including:
- Support of Spanish-speaking clients and families with a bilingual Care Consultant as well
as Family Caregiver Workshops and Newsletters in Spanish.
- Held our first “Black History Month” luncheon and presentation regarding Dr. Solomon
Carter Fuller, an African-American physician who worked alongside Dr. Alzheimer in
Germany in the early 1900’s.
- Served the Chinese Community with 59 presentations, two support groups, six seminars
and media coverage including Chinese newspapers and a monthly radio program.
We added resources to our Early Stage Services including a special Web site section,
informational brochures and a family caregiver workshop.
We grew our MedicAlert® + Alzheimer’s Association Safe Return® program, enrolling 1526
persons with the disease (PWD’s) and 88 caregivers in the program. At the end of June there
were 12,576 PWD’s enrolled in NYC. We assisted in finding 269 lost/found individuals with
cognitive impairment and successfully found 99% of those missing persons who were enrolled in
MedicAlert + Safe Return.
We expanded our education curriculum by holding:
- 86 Core Education meetings, reaching 1,359 individuals.
- 45-hour Dementia Care Training for Home Care Workers in English and Spanish reaching
132 home health care workers.
- Three 10-hour Dementia Care Education for Home Care Workers in Chinese reaching 52
home health care workers.
We managed a 27% increase in our 24-hour Helpline calls — answering 4,324 calls — and
provided 650 individual and family consultations.
We supervised and sponsored 123 Support Groups. The loss of some groups due to economic
conditions was offset by adding 15 new groups, with 7 more in the planning stage.
We developed “Greet Art,” a program that was piloted this year with MoMA, bringing family
and professional caregivers to the museum to introduce caregivers to creating dialogue about art
with persons with dementia.
We initiated two new volunteer initiatives — the Phone Bank and expansion of our Speakers
Bureau:
- Speakers Bureau representatives reached 2,069 people in the five boroughs through 75
Speakers Bureau presentations.
- We recruited & trained 21 new Speakers Bureau members.
Help us by spreading the word. Let your friends and neighbors know that we are only a
phone call or e-mail away at 800-272-3900 or our new Web address: www.alz.org/nyc.
Thank you.
— Jed Levine
Executive Vice President,
Director of Programs & Services
|
|
Previous
