Cognitive Rehabilitation with Apex Harmony Lodge Service S1-4

The first session on the 9th of September was an introduction to Apex Harmony Lodge (a home for people with Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease) and Dementia. I kept thinking how my life would be if my Mom had dementia or my Dad. I felt immensely sad for the people that are in that home but when we went to the Lodge on the 30th of September, the people there were happy and excited to see us. A few of them were I guess a bit grumpy and looked indifferent and even bored, but some waved and smiled and laughed. One even started speaking to a few of the other students in Chinese but I couldn’t because I don’t learn Chinese. It is going to be tough to keep my emotions in check and not be a complete emotional wreck when we go to the Lodge. For the next 2 weeks before October break, we will be planning activities for the people in the lodge, so we won’t be able to visit for a while. I decided to do this service because I want to do Psychology in university and I thought the that two tied in pretty well. I remember going to Apex Harmony Lodge before sometime in Middle School but I don’t remember for what reason so I feel tied to the place. It is pretty nerve wrecking because I feel that people with dementia can be a bit unpredictable but I’m sure that that’s just a stigma and I need to overcome it. I need to become comfortable around people with dementia or else I won’t grow nor will I get anything out of the service.

The last session on the 7th of October, we planned the activities that we will do on our assigned dates. I was partnered with Meira and we will be leading a session on the 18th of November when the G10s will have IGCSE exams but that is only 2 people in our service. Our Plan A is to rent out Jenga blocks from the Service office to play with the residents during a 3v3 match of students versus residents. So we will combine 3 pairs into 1 group which will give a total of 4 groups which makes sense as we have 12 people in our service and we will only need 4 Jenga sets. This should help the residents with motor skills as this can be achieved by them focusing on moving theirs hands and precision and not knock over the tower. We will most likely need to use tables and to put the sets in the middle of the table to create distance for when the tower falls, that it will not injure the residents. Our Plan B is to make origami hearts and envelopes (in which they can write letters to themselves and read it later on) with the residents. We will need to buy small squares or origami paper from a shop the weekend before and print out instructions.

On the 14th of October, the teacher was sick so we weren’t able to attend the session but Nikki, who is a psychologist working in Apex Harmony Lodge, left comments on our activities that we planned. The only thing she said about our activity is that we would need to show an example of an origami heart first before starting to teach the residents. The rest is good to go for first week that we come back from October break. I think we will go to the Lodge and do the first activity that will be hosted by Adrija and Varini.

On 11th of November, I was sick so I couldn’t go to school and service that day. Another person in the service told me that they went to the residence and met the residents that they were partnered up with. I was partnered with Madam Annie.

On 18th of November, I had completely forgotten that it was me and my partner’s turn to host activities for the residents. 5 mins before we were supposed to leave, my partnered told me that she was unable to come and that she was not able to get the Jenga sets that we had ordered weeks prior. I raced to the Service office and was able to obtain those sets along with another service member. The activities ran smoothly as Madam Christina, the resident with whom I was partnered, enjoyed the activity and was visibly laughing but when I asked her if she enjoyed the sessions she would say “no”.

On the 25th of November, two other groups members had to switch plans because something didn’t work out with logistics so they had to book Jenga sets and had brought Hua Hee (a card game that uses Singaporean items to help jog the memory of the residents). My partnered resident was Madam Annie who had a headache and would barely speak english and would say “i don’t know” to all of my questions to her. I would try to build a Jenga tower with her but she refused. I would ask her to play the card games with me and she would refuse. I would ask her questions about her day and she wouldn’t respond. Towards the end of the session, she would warm up to me and she would start talking to me about where I live, me being a student, and what I do which was very heartwarming. She even told me “See you next week!”. The activities were a little bit unsuccessful but I tried to go about and find another way to engage with her which I would say worked even if the question was “Do you like dolphins?”. I really tried to talk to her but in a calm manner. Nikki would tells us some acronyms about some kills or things to keep in mind while talking to the residents and how to respect them. The photos will be attached of PAVE, BAGS and GAH. There will also be a picture of the activities that we had, I did not include the residents as to protect their identity.

On the 2nd of December, Madame Annie didn’t want to do any of the activities planned so I thought I would talk to her a bit more. She gave me a lot of advice on life. Primarily, “study hard to earn money and don ‘t go outing with boyfriend”. I thought it was fun and conservative of her, a bit “old-fashioned” advice but advice nonetheless and I want to try and apply that to myself right now.

On the 9th of December, we had to make origami hearts. We were all taught how to make them by the two students running the activities this week. The backup plan was to decorate a printed out a sheet of a Christmas tree with stickers. I couldn’t get a hold of the stickers but I tried to teach Madame Annie on how to make a heart origami. She kept saying “I don’t know” and didn’t even want to try. I tried to encourage her and cheer her on to try and make one with me. When I would offer her one that I made (as a gift), she would refuse them. I ended up making her a lot of hearts but she wouldn’t budge when I would try to get her to make some with me. However, what did change was that she ended up keeping all of the hearts that I made and told me “see you next week”. She also told me that when she would tell people advice, people don’t actually listen and take in her advice. Nikki also told us some more acronyms to help us when interacting with the residents.

On the 16th of December, the leaders brought in Jenga and jigsaw puzzles. Madame Annie was very introverted today and did not want to participate in the games that I brought for her. I offered to have her do the jigsaw, she didn’t want to. I tried to encourage her to help build the Jenga tower with me but she said “I don’t want to play your games, or else i’ll go take the bus home.”. I was a bit shocked but I didn’t push it so we fell into silence until it was time for me to go. I tried to ask her questions to start up a conversation such as “How are you?” and “What is your favourite colour?” but she would ignore me and say that she wanted to observe. We also had to write reflections today like how we did when we just joined the service. Here is the picture showing this.

On the first session back from the Christmas break (13th January), we had Little Albert for some of the residents which is a robot that moves according which cards are scanned (they have directions) in order to improve spacial recognition and spacial skills.  However, Madame Annie was preoccupied with lacing. This activity included have a thin wooden board with holes in it and the objective was to lace a piece of string through the holes in an over-and-under fashion. Chua Annie was unable to do so but I tried to encourage while showing her on a smaller piece. I encouraged to try again but she kept on saying “I don’t know” and “I can’t do it”. In the end, she gave up. Due to how introverted and irritated she sounded in the last session, I decided to be more careful when conversing with her. Surprisingly, she would strike conversation first. Our conversation revolved around how we have been and our days. Some of the questions I have already answered in the past such as “Are you a student?” and “How old are you?” but I answered them as if she had never asked. I did this in order to not make her feel bad about forgetting. This week we had focused on how to complete activities alongside the residents. We had to take our time and match the speed of the residents, we also didn’t have to complete the activity but rather we had to do the activity properly while encouraging the residents. We used the acronym MUT for this. A picture is attached below of what it stands for.

Due to the corona virus, we are unable to visit Apex Harmony Lodge in order to protect the residents. We took this time to start to reflect on the our overall progress by creating a short and listing what we did well and what we could improve on. Below is the photo of our discussion.

The following week, we started planning what we could continue to help Apex Harmony as we had a meeting with the service department and were brainstorming ideas on how we could indirectly help them, advocate for them and help with potential research. Our main focus will be to start building our portfolio, posts will most likely include information on dementia, what we have worked on, what was successful and what wasn’t in order for people in the future who will join the service to be able to directly pick up on our progress and continue instead of relapsing. Below is a picture of the ideas that we were able to conjure.

During this session, we decided to carry on from the last session by acting on the back up plans we created. I was assigned to help write and edit the portfolio which desperately needed improvement. We started to write the introduction and change the layout of the portfolio which can help readers find the information quicker. An email was sent to Nikki to ask about which activities were not tried yet and on a general reflection on our work from the first two seasons. We want the portfolio to become an outlet that can allow us to educate others about dementia and people who suffer from it, as well as showing what we do and our progress so far.  We also want the pages to contain quotes from the residents but we need Nikki for this as we are unable to go to the lodge as this  time. This portfolio can also help others carry on from where we left off after the fourth season, to not just refresh and start over.  Here is the link to the portfolio:

http://portfolios.uwcsea.edu.sg/apex/

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are in quarantine and are unable to directly help the residents at Apex Harmony Lodge. We were unable to participate in service as the school was focusing on transferring to online learning. However, we will still be able to start setting up and continuing to better the portfolio of this service. We will begin discussing how we can still contribute and help online in this difficult situation on the 11th of May.

As circuit breaker came into view, our interaction was hindered and there was a limit to what we could do. However, we persevered and continued to work on the website and portfolio. Below is a recording of one of our last conversations:

As a conclusion, this service had taught me quite a few things. Firstly, the advice given to me by the resident that I was paired with is still something I think of everyday. Secondly, I discovered that I really do enjoy helping people and making them happy. When we were still able to come to the lodge, it made me very happy when Madame Annie would reply to me and make conversation. It made me smile knowing that she was giggling or laughing at my jokes. I also felt pretty connected to the local community knowing that I am aiding it in some way, shape or form. I really enjoyed being able to participate in this service and I hope that the other students who will take over this service, will do even more progress than us. Although the pandemic may have complicated a few things for us, we were still able to overcome those obstacles and able to help the residents, even if it was indirect.

Learning Outcomes:

LO6: A large issue that I had encountered during this service would be the stigma around mental illness which I have written about before and spreads into other subjects such as it’s representation in literature. Many people assume that people who have dementia are completely brain dead or unable to function which isn’t true, they still have personalities and stories to tell and a life to live. There are levels to dementia and how severe it is within the person but people who suffer from it still should be taken care of and I understood that while working with the residents.

LO7/LO2: Something I had to be really careful with was to be patient with the residents when they wouldn’t hear me or wouldn’t want to participate within the activity we planned. It really made me learn how to flexible and adaptable to situations that don’t really go to plan, as well resilient.

LO3: There were many activities that were planned and executed in this activity, by collaborating with other participants. This was seen through planning each group’s activity on a document and preparing logistics for it as well as realising the reason for creating such an activity and how that can help the residents (eg. to improve motor skills).

LO4: There was regular weekly involvement with the activity in which we planned to do an activity for every session when coming to the lodge. Lessons that were not focused on activities were more centered around learning how to teach, act around and understand the residents.