Cognitive Rehabilitation with Apex Harmony Lodge(Investigation and Preparation)

During the past few weeks, I’ve been given the opportunity to contribute to ‘Cognitive Rehabilitation with Apex Harmony Lodge’, a local service that aims to help the elderly with dementia. Dementia is a global problem that has not only affected numerous individuals’ health but has also had to face various stereotypes and stigmas that have been proposed to them. Through this service, I believe that students can raise more awareness about Dementia itself, whilst eliminating the social stigma against these individuals.

As one of the co-chairs of this local service, there has been a myriad of new learning and challenges encountered. There is no doubt that this opportunity has provided me various new skills such as collaboration and communication skills as it was essential to keep communicating with the staff from Apex Harmony Lodge in order to set meetings and avoid miscommunication. In addition, due to the current COVID-19 regulations, we were not able to meet the residents(elderly) directly, hence I had to use my critical thinking and creativity skills in order to brainstorm various activities that we could undertake in order to fulfil the needs of the elderly, as well as build stronger connections with our local service partners.

Our first few sessions were dedicated to the investigation and preparation stage for our local partners themselves, hence we were able to call Niki, one of the staff from Apex Harmony Lodge, and listen to a presentation about dementia and the needs of the elderly. I felt that this was a great opportunity for us to expand our knowledge about dementia and the elderly, which was extremely necessary for our planning sessions.

The next few weeks were dedicated to planning our weekly sessions with the elderly, which were virtual due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Whilst planning every weekly session, we had to make sure that all the materials presented were appropriate and ethical, without causing any harm to the residents.

Virtual meetings were one of the most challenging parts of planning our sessions as we were restricted from undertaking certain activities that we could do in-person and had to use our creativity to brainstorm various activities that would suit the CSP guidelines that Nikki sent us, as well as have the residents engaged all throughout the session. I made sure to divide the group into three small groups so that everyone is able to fully contribute their ideas and efficiently organize each session without wasting a substantial amount of time. Once each group has completed their session, I made all the groups present back to everyone so that everyone was aware of the activities that were needed to be conducted. My group organized a session with a presentation about Singapore history, along with an online drawing game called “skribbl.io”.

Our virtual meetings didn’t run as smoothly as we anticipated, not in the way that our sessions were unorganized, but there were many connection problems with the elderly from Apex Harmony Lodge. In order to conquer this problem, we reached out to another service group that collects digital devices that were no longer in use, therefore we were then able to donate these laptops to Apex Harmony Lodge. The photo below was taken on the day we brought the laptops to the actual service center.

Ultimately, I’ve really enjoyed taking on the role as one of the co-chairs of ‘Apex Harmony Lodge’ and am grateful to be working with a group of committed students that are eager to dedicate their time and effort to help the elderly with dementia. I hope that the next few months will also run smoothly, and we will be able to successfully facilitate all of our sessions.