Summer 2021
Community Connections
Clinton | Columbia | Florence | Foothills | Laurel Crest | Summerville
Welcome to A One-of-a-Kind Neighborhood Excitement continues to build as The Village at Summerville makes significant progress on the new memory support neighborhood: Evergreen House. From Evergreen House’s inception, Jennifer Brush, MA, CCC/SLP, worked in conjunction with Presbyterian Communities of South Carolina and McMillan Pazdan and Smith Architects to design the memory support neighborhood, the first intentionally designed building of its kind in the United States. Jennifer is the only trainer in the U.S. certified by the Association of Montessori Internationale (AMI) for Montessori for Aging and Dementia and one of two trainers of trainers in the world with this exclusive expertise. The building is already being presented as the gold standard for memory support design at national and international events. Care Partners at Evergreen House are trained in the Montessori philosophy for dementia care by Jennifer and her team. These special Care Partners collect a thorough history of the resident and collaborate with the resident and his or her family to identify roles that will provide meaningful engagement. Grace and courtesy are used during all communications to support relationship building and independence. Care Partners practice with residents to help them relearn previous life roles as well as learn new roles they may enjoy. The more residents are routinely engaged in practice, the more they are able to do on their own and many times perform the role independently. The activities and roles happen as a normal course of the day, just like they would if the person was living at home. Specially designed signage invites residents to participate in normalizing life tasks; familiar roles include setting the table, helping with meal preparation, watering flowers, or doing laundry.
App 2021 rec D iat onor ion Issu e While the most familiar usage of the word evergreen refers to trees and shrubs that have green leaves throughout the entire year, the word also has another meaning – one that is particularly applicable to the groundbreaking concept of Montessori for Aging and Dementia. Evergreen is something that doesn’t change with the seasons, something that is timeless and does not become obsolete. That is the intention of Montessori-based memory support, which helps residents feel useful, valuable and relevant by rekindling past roles and tasks so they can make meaningful contributions to their present life and community.
Residents involved with meaningful and purposeful roles experience an environment where they enjoy making contributions and have lower levels of anxiety and confusion often seen in individuals with dementia. Evergreen House is expected to be completed and to welcome new residents around December 2021. www.PresCommunities.org