Adult Dementia Care & Activity Center in Brick, NJ
Town Square at the Jersey Shore provides a unique and comprehensive approach to dementia care for our members living with Alzheimer’s disease, other types of dementia, or memory loss. Our 12,000 square foot facility provides dementia persons living with dementia an immersive experience that evokes their strongest and most cherished memories — designed in the image of a 1950s American town.
Scheduled daily activities occur in our 12 storefronts, each of which is a unique activity space. They feature cars, food, movies, music, and TV shows from the era, helping to spark meaningful memories through specialized reminiscence activities.
At our Brick, NJ facility, we treat everyone in our care as a unique individual, evaluating their specific needs and schedule personalized programming tailored specifically for them.
Every one of our staff members is trained and certified in a specialized Alzheimer’s and dementia care program, and we perform periodic refreshers in their training to maintain our team’s skills while learning about new developments in the field of dementia care. Our leadership team has extensive experience in senior care and in creating programming that improves quality of life for people with memory loss. Here, we establish routines to engage the minds and bodies of people living with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia — including gentle reminiscence activities, based in our deep understanding of reminiscence therapy and memory care.
Why Is Adult Day Care So Important for People With Dementia?
While people with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia are individuals with their own experiences and requirements, one commonality is that they need greater levels of care as their conditions progress. Since the primary caregivers of people who have dementia are usually spouses, children, or other family members who also have other responsibilities, achieving this level of care is difficult without assistance.
With adult day care from Town Square, seniors with dementia can join their peers for fun-filled, therapeutic days full of social connection and reminiscence during the week, and the benefits of our programming make it more possible for our members to remain at home and allow family caregivers to provide more effective care.
Benefits of an Adult Day Care Center
Adult day care centers are dedicated care environments where seniors can connect with the professional services they need while friends, family members, or other at-home carers get the respite they need.
Providing at-home care around the clock can be challenging. Adult day care centers are designed to ease this strain, giving seniors a place to stay during the day while caregivers get other things done.
Many caregivers value the “best of both worlds” approach that Town Square provides. Our members’ primary caregivers still get to provide in-home care in a familiar environment, but are able to have during the day to focus on other tasks. More than that, the highly trained and skilled team at Town Square helps our members find fulfillment, connection, and purposeful interactions during their time with us.
Caregiver Benefits
Adult day care centers offer many benefits for caregivers, which include:
- Peace of mind from knowing their loved ones are receiving the care they need during the day
- Time for relaxation and respite, enabling better care
- The opportunity to handle other tasks that may have been postponed
- Better physical and mental health overall due to lowered stress and more available time
Senior Benefits
Seniors also gain a whole host of benefits from Town Square Here are a few of the main advantages:
- The chance to enjoy strong social interactions with other seniors
- Improved self-esteem and mood
- Care and assistance from trained staff with knowledge of the latest dementia care advances
How Day Care Centers Help the Elderly
Town Square is designed with our members’ needs in mind, and so we provide everything older adults need for a fulfilled and stimulating day:
- Varied physical and mental exercises
- Meaningful activities that instill a sense of purpose
- A social environment where interactions and friendships are prioritized
- Tasty and nutritious meals and snacks
- A familiar yet stimulating and fun routine, with an emphasis on social connection, creativity, and learning
What is the meaning of dementia care?
Dementia care, broadly speaking, is specialized care designed to support the needs of a person living with dementia.
While there is no known way to cure or reverse Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia, there is a robust field of knowledge about how to improve quality of life for a person living with dementia. Best practices include understanding how the person living with dementia is perceiving the moment. Then methods can be employed for constructive communication, appropriate activities for the person’s cognitive strengths, and knowledge of the factors that can cause agitation (such as times of day or excessive sensory input).
Professional dementia care is provided by experienced caregivers with a thorough understanding of these best practices.
Family caregivers can also learn about dementia care, to provide the best possible care at home for loved ones with dementia. At Town Square at the Jersey Shore, we help educate our community in a variety of ways — including caregiver support groups and educational workshops at our Jersey Shore Family Center.
How do you care for a person with dementia?
As people experience memory loss, they are often confused by their surroundings, sometimes leading to agitation. Therefore, creating structure, with a daily routine for around-the-clock care, is important in helping both the caregiver and the person with dementia.
In addition, it’s important to allow seniors to enjoy the memories of their younger days, which typically remain stronger for a person with memory loss compared to more recent or short-term memories. That’s why, at Town Square, we derive much of our care model from the research around reminiscence therapy — an approach to dementia care developed by George G. Glenner Alzheimer’s Family Centers.
When making a plan for a person’s dementia care, it’s important to structure each day with activities that both you and the person you’re caring for enjoy. This helps avoid boredom, strengthens your personal connection with them, and help avert the kind of agitation common in people living with Alzheimer’s and other progressive dementia disorders.
When creating a daily care plan, consider the following:
- How the person used to structure their day before their dementia diagnosis
- Time for personal care routines like daily hygiene and eating meals
- The time of day the person with dementia functions their best
- A regular routine for sleep and wake times, especially for those who have sleep issues or dementia-related sundowning (a worsening of symptoms that may occur around twilight)
What does dementia care consist of?
When family caregivers decide they need extra help, they may turn to adult day care centers, at-home care, or long term care facilities for full-time or part-time assistance. Dementia care can include daily activities as well as assistance with meal services, medication management, and short or long-term housing.
Specialized staff who work with persons living with dementia must be trained on how to follow a daily care plan. They must also have skills for calming and reassuring seniors living with dementia and strategies for engaging them in fulfilling activities
What is day care for people with dementia?
Adult day care for people with progressive dementia disorders is a senior care option that can help the person living with the disease live a meaningful, fulfilling life, while providing much-needed downtime for their family caregivers. There are numerous other benefits of using a quality day care program for people with dementia.
- It is affordable. Compared with the expense of a full-time at-home care aide or senior living facility placement, day care programs for people with dementia fit into most people’s budgets.
- It enhances lives. People with Alzheimer’s and other related dementias-can live a socially active and fulfilling life in an adult day care program designed to stimulate memories and cognition.
- It improves safety and security. Adult day care centers for persons living with dementia provide close professional supervision in an enriching environment. Features of the disease like forgetfulness, wandering, and lack of safety awareness can make it unsafe to be at home alone.
It offers respite care. Caregiving takes an emotional and physical toll on the people providing it. Adult day care programs for persons living with dementia can provide respite for regular caregivers who need to recharge their batteries.
How do day centers help?
Seniors’ day-to-day needs vary depending on the stage of dementia they’re experiencing and the severity of their symptoms.
Adult day care centers offer an interactive, safe, and supervised environment for seniors living with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. As an alternative to full-time senior living facilities, they combine personal care with social services and therapeutic activities in a convenient daytime setting.
12 types of gentle dementia care activities at Town Square at the Jersey Shore
At Town Square at the Jersey Shore, within the immersive 1950s design of our facility, we carry out our dementia care services at our 12 storefronts. Each has its own unique schedule of programming and its own unique way of benefitting our senior population.
When our members first join Town Square at the Jersey Shore, we get to know them through an assessment of their needs and interests. Then we’re able to schedule our programming to best meet the needs of every member of our community.
Socialize with your community in Glenner Park
Community is at the heart of everything we do at Town Square at the Jersey Shore. We know that socializing in a safe environment helps maintain healthy emotions, which benefit our members who are living with dementia. We host a variety of special events and activities in Glenner Park, named in memory of dementia care pioneer George G. Glenner.
Watch a classic movie with friends at the Starlite Theater
We present classic films and special guest performances at our in-house movie theater. Town Square’s activity director chooses programming that will be most grounding and beneficial to individuals living with dementia, including favorite films and TV shows our members grew up with. After the programming concludes, we provide a space for our guests to talk and reminisce.
Meet the team at our City Hall
In dementia care, it’s important that individuals feel comfortable and welcomed by the people around them. Our City Hall is our staff’s headquarters, where we host occasional events and where members are always welcome to stop by and say hello. Our open and inviting atmosphere and team of expert facilitators make reminiscing at Town Square at the Jersey Shore a more memorable and meaningful experience.
Enjoy favorite classic foods at Rosie’s Diner
Stop by with your friends to enjoy the sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of classic diner food from the 1950s. Tastes and smells elicit emotions and trigger our memories. Together with the 1950s design and the “golden oldies” playing on the jukebox — a meal at Rosie’s Diner or a Root Beer float in the afternoon can be a source of pleasure and comfort for a person living with dementia, allowing them to relive a favorite experience from their younger days.
Make yourself at home, at the Little Blue House
Here our members can relax in a 1950s-style living room, complete with furniture, and music from that era, while they reminisce with friends and our staff. This environment is all about making our members feel comfortable, and it can include gentle reminiscence activities like looking at old photographs and using other memory touchstones to spark happy conversations.
Get glammed up at Guys and Dolls Salon
Here we provide our members with haircuts and hairstyling. Getting a clean shave or a fancy new ‘do while reminiscing with friends can make you look – and feel – like a million bucks! At Guys and Dolls Salon, we provide another safe space where our members and staff can interact, in an environment that will bring back fond memories from their earlier years.
Shoot the breeze about vintage cars, at Chumley’s Garage
Mike’s Garage is the place to be if you enjoy talking about vintage automobiles, but it’s not only for car enthusiasts. Our classic 1955 Oldsmobile and other automotive items from that era are powerful touchstones for our members, reminding them of the cars they drove in their youth. These items often spark shared memories and conversations that strengthen the social connections of our community and add to the overall environment of dementia care and reminiscence.
Gain new skills at the Learning Center
Stimulating the brain and learning new skills is one of the most important things you can do to keep your brain sharp as you age, and this remains true in the midst of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. At our Learning Center, we engage our members in gentle group learning and problem-solving exercises. We take virtual trips to museums, historic locations or even zoos and aquariums. Here, we know that you’re never too old to learn something new.
Explore arts and crafts at Craft Corner
Similar to learning something new, the act of creating art can help stimulate the brain and offer its own unique set of benefits to persons living with dementia. Crafts and creative expression are therapeutic and can help reduce anxiety in adults. Our team integrates reminiscence activities into these programs to cultivate a fulfilling experience in memory care.
Enjoy a game at the Recreation Center
Games provide yet another beneficial form of mental stimulation. They can be highly engaging and allow for a healthy degree of social interaction. Bingo, card games, and pool are a few of the games you can enjoy at the Town Square at the Jersey Shore Recreation Center — where you can challenge your brain while making fond connections with your friends.
Boost your mood at Music Memories
Music improves mood and reduces stress. When we hear music that is linked to an important time in our lives, it also elicits memories and brings us back to that time. This can be a fond source of meaning for people living with dementia. Our Music Memories storefront combines the concepts of music therapy and reminiscence activities to help our guests relax and remember.
Improve your vitality at Town Square Health Club
It’s well known that physical activity yields several benefits for our mental and emotional health. At our Health Club, members can enjoy specialized equipment and activities designed to boost physical health and well-being. We have individual and group exercises appropriate for seniors of all ages and fitness levels. This physical activity allows us to provide a well-rounded, comprehensive approach to dementia care, at Town Square at the Jersey Shore.
Get quality dementia care services at Town Square at the Jersey Shore
Don’t just take our word for it. Come experience our innovative adult day care center for yourself, and discover everything Town Square at the Jersey shore has to offer, in dementia care and in creating happy, beneficial, and meaningful experiences for seniors in the New Jersey community.
To arrange a tour or book a visit to try our activities at our Brick, NJ facility, or to enroll at Town Square at the Jersey Shore, please complete our enrollment form, contact us online, or call 732-451-6185.
