FREE
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F O C U S
VOL.19, NO.1
F O R
P E O P L E
O V E R
5 0 JANUARY 2022
More than 125,000 readers throughout Greater Baltimore
Sweet ! Domino Sugar turns 100
BALTIMORE BEACON — JANUARY 2022
PHOTO BY JAMES KIRKIKIS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Makes a great gift!
SPECIAL PULL-OUT SECTION
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When a loved one requires memory care By Mary Kane For Marylander Larry Barrett, the agonizing decision to find a memory care community for his wife, Martha, began more than 10 years ago. That’s when Larry first noticed that something was going on with Martha, then 60, a lawyer. She’d forget the name of a person she met the night before. On a trip to Louisville, Ky., where she grew up, she forgot the way to her childhood home. Larry persuaded Martha in 2010 to see a neurologist, who diagnosed her with mild cognitive impairment. In the years that followed, Martha’s condition progressed to Alzheimer’s. Larry tried to care for her himself, but things got complicated. He sold their house and moved them into a nearby apartment. But Martha began to wander. Once, when Larry was attending a support group for spouses of people with dementia, the apartment building’s front desk staff called to say they had found Martha disoriented. “I was reaching the point where she couldn’t be appropriately cared for at home,” said Larry. After a yearlong search, he found a nearby memory care community for Martha in 2017. The process took an emotional toll. “It’s one of the hardest decisions you can make in your life,” he said. Many family members of people with dementia face the same decision Larry Barrett did. They want a spouse or parent to get 24-hour, supportive care but also still enjoy some quality of life. It isn’t simple to find that kind of care, whether in a nursing home, assisted living, a continuing-care retirement community or a memory care unit. Loved ones also sometimes worry about stereotypes of long-term care, such as an elderly parent being left alone all day. These fears can induce guilt in family members.
Person-centered care But many long-term care communities for people with dementia are changing their culture and practices to be “person centered” — focusing on the individual needs of residents and recognizing they still require meaning and purpose in their lives. In this evolving version of care, staff work closely with families to understand
CREDIT
By Margaret Foster Baltimore native Cathy Bowers owes her life to Domino Sugar. Her parents, the late Albert and Cassie Bowers, met at the Baltimore refinery in the 1950s. Albert started in the mailroom and rose to the head of the billing department, and Cassie worked as a keypunch operator. The company’s bowling league brought them together, and they started dating. “They had to keep it a secret,” from their boss, Bowers said. After the two were married, Cassie stayed home with the children while Albert continued to work for the company for 47 years. Many Baltimoreans can cite a similar connection to Domino Sugar, which opened on the Inner Harbor waterfront 100 years ago. Its signature 120-foot-tall red sign represents the city as well as, say, Camden Yards or the Bromo-Seltzer tower. But last April, while the sign was under renovation, a fire threatened the 30-acre campus, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Smoke billowed from one of its 15 buildings, fire trucks rushed to the site, and the smell of burned sugar, akin to crème brulee, filled the air, according to witnesses. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze.
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and respect the qualities someone had before entering long-term care, and to learn the person’s interests, routines and needs. A care community might use a resident’s previous occupation or interests to offer daily activities to look forward to. Perhaps a resident who loved gardening arranges flowers for the dining room each night. Or staff recognize that a resident who wakes at 4 a.m. every day had spent his life as a farmer, accustomed to rising early and having a strong cup of coffee. They adjust to his routine, instead of “correcting” his behavior and persuading him to go back to bed. “You live in their reality,” said Jennifer Slack, community liaison at Maples of Stoneleigh, a memory care facility in Towson.
Still part of the community Care communities embracing these changes also are connected to their neighborhoods and the outside world. For example, Silverado, a senior care company dedicated to memory care that
operates in eight states, encourages residents to regularly engage with their communities by making sandwiches for the homeless or baking dog biscuits and visiting animals at the local shelter. “So many negative dementia behaviors in facilities in the past were related to people feeling like a prisoner, or just boredom and having no sense of purpose,” said Kim Butrum, Silverado’s senior vice president of clinical services. “But allowing a person to still feel like they make a difference is part of what makes you human. That doesn’t stop because you’re having trouble with language or your memory declined.” This view is supported by the Alzheimer’s Association, which last year released its recommendations for dementia care that call for a “holistic, person-centered approach to care” and “a positive approach” to supporting people with dementia and their caregivers. “I don’t want to minimize the challenges, because of course a dementia diag-
nosis is scary,” said Sheryl Zimmerman, co-director of the program on aging, disability and long-term care at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “But many assisted living and other providers know ways to offer quality services for people with dementia. In fact, years ago we didn’t use the words ‘quality of life’ and ‘dementia’ in the same sentence. But now we do.”
Do your homework Be proactive in researching person-centered care practices, Zimmerman advised. You also can advocate for them in a community you’re considering. For example, people with dementia can find showers uncomfortable. But staff can adjust the bathing routine to have a resident sit in a chair, lean back and have her hair washed in the sink, which resembles the pleasant experience of going to a salon and makes the task far less stressful. And person-centered communities will See WHERE TO DONATE, page B-4
SEE SPECIAL INSERT Housing & Homecare Options following page 10
Centennial celebration in April Domino Sugar’s Baltimore refinery, one of three in the country, first opened on April 2, 1922. Today, Domino Sugar processes 585,000 tons of raw sugar here. Ships and barges deliver the sugar cane crystals via the Patapsco River, and the refinery produces white, brown and powdered sugar from it. Late last year, it started producing limited-edition 100th-anniversary sugar packets to be distributed in restaurants. This April,
The Domino Sugar refinery opened in the Inner Harbor in April 1922. This spring, the still-active refinery will celebrate its centennial with several public events yet to be announced. Its iconic sign has recently been updated from the original neon to new LED lights.
Domino’s owner, American Sugar Refinery, Inc. (ASR), plans to celebrate Domino’s centennial with not-yet-announced events that will be open to the public. “Generation after generation of people have been coming to work at the Baltimore
refinery, earning good wages and making quality products,” said Peter O’Malley, spokesman for ASR, the world’s largest sugar refinery. See DOMINO SUGAR, page 16
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L E I S U R E & T R AV E L
The mountain town of Asheville, N.C., lights up for the holidays; plus, helpful tips for navigating today’s airports page 11 FITNESS & HEALTH k Getting forgetful? Sleep more k Brain exercises to stay sharp
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ARTS & STYLE 15 k Memoir charts a life in music PUZZLES
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