Growing older hasn’t improved Dr. Robert Wallace’s memory, and he’s doing something about it.
For the last two months, the resident of Alexandria’s Goodwin House Incorporated has participated in StrongerMemory, a memory care program designed to combat memory loss in seniors. Goodwin House started the program in January 2020, with a handful of daily activities that encourage working memory and triggering brain activity in the prefrontal cortex.
“I never felt I had a strong memory,” said Wallace. “This deficit progressed a bit with age. So when the program became available, I thought it was worth trying.”
Wallace said reading the newspaper and doing math exercises helps, and that subjectively he noticed changes between when he was and wasn’t doing the memory care exercises.
The program has even received the endorsement of U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), who virtually celebrated Goodwin House’s work in being dementia-friendly at an event today (Friday).
City Council member Amy Jackson said that Alexandria will need more memory care-type programs in the coming years.
“[With my mother-in-law] I saw a decline in cognitive abilities,” said Jackson. “Stronger Memory would have helped her longevity. Our city’s senior population is growing every day, and as our senior population grows, we’re relying more on programs such as these so we can have important human interactions to continue to relate to each other on a personal level.”
There are nearly 5.8 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s, and 5.6 million of them are seniors, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Photo via Goodwin House Inc./Facebook
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