In 2019, Richard Ferry founded Maude’s Awards for Innovation in Alzheimer’s Care, inspired by Maude, his beloved wife of 65 years. She lived her life with grace and elegance, a beacon of hope, love, and wisdom for all who knew her. She was and will always remain the wind beneath his wings.
Maude developed dementia in 2013 and Richard became her loving care partner, always searching for ways to bring joy and happiness to her life. His search led him to create Maude’s Awards, dedicated to the discovery and celebration of programs and practices of care that are enhancing the lives of people living with dementia, and their care partners, and sharing these programs with the wider dementia care community.
2024 MARKS OUR FIFTH ANNIVERSARY!
Our Mission
Maude’s Awards believes in the enduring personhood of people living with dementia, Still Here, fully engaged, living with purpose, and active in the lives of their families and communities.
We believe in care while we wait for a cure, dedicated to the discovery, celebration, and sharing of innovative programs and practices of care that are enhancing the lives of people living with dementia, and their care partners, enabling them to live with meaning and purpose, engaged and active in the lives of their families and communities.
Maude’s Awards annually grants three $25,000 awards to organizations and up to five $5,000 gifts to individuals for the extraordinary programs and support they are bringing to people living with dementia, and their care partners across our nation.
Our Impact
Since our inception 5 years ago, Maude’s Awards has:
- Awarded 12 organization winners and 20 individual winners
- Given awards in 25% of the U.S.
- Supported organizations and individuals serving nearly 500,000 people and counting
- Awarded $400,000 total
- Released 4 editions of Innovations in Alzheimer’s Care, an annual handbook celebrating our winners and other notable innovations, distributed free in print and digital formats
- Partnered with Dementia Action Alliance and music star Jay Allen to produce a series of podcasts on his journey as a care partner with his mother Sherry Rich and how that journey impacted his music.
- Partnered with Washington State Dementia Action Collaborative to announce our 2023 winners at their annual conference
- Partnered with The Memory Hub to hold a hybrid awards ceremony celebrating our 2022 winners
- Partnered with numerous care partners to create Gifts to Give, a social media video series celebrating the unique challenges and blessings of being a care partner.
Updates from Our Awardees
We wish to express our profound gratitude to the wonderful people and organizations who work every day to enhance and support the lives of people living with dementia, and their families and care partners.
Prepare to be inspired as our previous Awardees share new developments in their programs and what they are looking forward to in the future.
Enjoy!
Updates are sorted by award category. To jump to a category, click on one of the links below.
Making Connections – Organizations
Making Connections – Individuals
Supporting Care Partners – Organizations
Supporting Care Partners – Individuals
Award Category: Making Connections – Organizations
Awarded annually to the individual or organization that has created meaningful opportunities for persons living with dementia to connect with the people and world around them. Examples: Creative arts programs, intergenerational opportunities, community service or advocacy projects.
CONCERTS IN MOTION
We are happy to share that in addition to sustaining our weekly virtual PCTIC concert series, designed to be accessible and welcoming for persons with dementia and their caregivers, we have been able to start offering concerts private to certain agencies that serve this community as well. In the last year we have started to reach the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America with in-person concerts for their clients, and The Memory Tree’s clients virtually.
https://www.concertsinmotion.org
DEMENTIA-FRIENDLY RECREATION I RAINBOW RECREATION
In the midst of a combined international public health and economic crisis, and a racial reckoning, a bright light was Maude’s Awards! A significant benefit to being an award recipient was to positively position advocacy for the reemergence of Dementia-Friendly Recreation as a sanctioned body of work. With approval granted, and when public health allowed, redevelopment could begin. With both new and former collaborators, programs are rooted in connection to each other and the powerful support a feeling of belonging provides. Engaging with nature, creating, moving as ability allows, and being playful each help us to feel well and have been incorporated into programs. Key to inspiration and development has been to include community voices in shaping programs.
A late 2023 program example, Community GROWS (Gathering, Reaching Out, We Strengthen) Camp, included a creative poetry project, community building games and challenges, and a nature experience. Both challenge course instructors and naturalists had the opportunity to work with Dementia-Friendly Recreation and individuals living with dementia for the first time, and the program was part of the Taking it to the Streets campaign, a project of Reimagining Dementia: A Creative Coalition for Justice.
Impactful connections have formed among program participants and, both experientially and reportedly, the Dementia-Friendly Recreation community lives on. Excitement for the future encompasses work to deepen or build relationships within underserved communities to further goals to create programs with community that meet sociocultural need. Award funds will contribute to the success that will be experienced when the Dementia-Friendly Recreation community is inclusive of a greater number of intersecting marginalized identities, spreading opportunity for more persons impacted by memory loss to access joy, connection, and growth.
https://www.seattle.gov/parks/recreation/for-adults-50/dementia-friendly-recreation
GIVING VOICE CHORUS
Giving Voice Initiative has been busy since receiving the Maude’s Award in 2021! We have continued to grow our dementia defying choruses in Minnesota, now operating five choruses, including one for Spanish speakers, to make singing as a path to wellbeing accessible to everyone in the metro area who is living with dementia and their care partners. And, our Virtual Chorus is open to anyone, anywhere.
We also are leading a global movement to launch more choruses for those with Alzheimer’s and their care partners. With over 50 Giving Voice inspired choruses in 17 states in our growing network, is the leading resource for creating these programs, as well as the benefits of singing and for people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. We know the impact that singing together has on people with Alzheimer’s, their support partners, their families, and our community. Alzheimer’s is full of obstacles and challenges at every turn. We need more life-affirming moments on the Alzheimer’s journey. It’s more than singing. It’s more than a chorus. It’s a community.
JEWISH FAMILY and CHILDREN’S SERVICES and DEMENTIA ACTION ALLIANCE
“This was a source of hope. Enlightening and eye-opening.”
Memory Cafes serve as places of empowerment, openness, and meaningful activity experienced in community with others. In doing so, they can be most powerful when they also serve to help dismantle dementia’s formidable social stigma that can be a barrier to living well with a diagnosis. And while Memory Cafes are committed to the comfort of all, including those struggling with a new diagnosis and those who are not yet diagnosed, Dementia Action Alliance (DAA) and the JFandCS Memory Café Percolator (Percolator) recognized the need to develop and demonstrate new Memory Café approaches that would meet people where they are in their dementia journey with a message that living well and purposefully with a diagnosis is very possible. With the essential support from Maude’s Awards, DAA and the Percolator released a new guide for Memory Café leaders on fostering leadership and other meaningful Café roles for people living with dementia. Our partnership then built upon this innovative resource with the scheduling of a series of “Café Chats,” carefully designed presentations at Memory Cafés by DAA advocates who are living well with dementia.
“I had no idea what to expect (and how the people in the café would react), but everyone kept saying thank you and it was fabulous. I think seeing [the advocate] and listening to how he still lives a very happy, productive life was helpful for them. We have a few in our group who won’t admit they are having some issues and were listening very attentively.”
Café Chats were presented from coast to coast and across national borders—at seventeen memory cafés in Massachusetts, Vermont, North Carolina, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington, and British Columbia. Follow-up surveys revealed the individual and group impact of this project, and a project summary presented at a Percolator idea exchange in September 2023 shared the insights with the hundreds of participating Memory Cafés. The Café Chats broke new ground and demonstrated that we can support café participants wherever they are with a renewed narrative of potential and possibility.
https://www.jfcsboston.org/percolator / https://daanow.org/
MOMENTIA
Momentia is a grassroots movement empowering persons with memory loss and their families to remain connected and active in the community. Based in Seattle, WA, it involves a variety of dementia-friendly opportunities that take place in community spaces – such as art gallery tours at the museum, improv workshops at the theater, or walks in the park. Momentia received a Maude’s Award in 2020 – a year that also necessitated a dramatic shift in terms of in-person programming due to the pandemic. After a season of pause, the organizations involved began experimenting with virtual equivalents for the dementia-friendly programs that could take place on Zoom. From online singalongs to virtual art discussions, many of the programs were able to find a new kind of life, continuing to provide community during a time of profound isolation. For the past year, in-person programs have seen a re-emergence, and today the Seattle area offers a blend of in-person and virtual program options. Opportunities continue to be posted to a shared, volunteer-managed community calendar at our website below.
OPENING MINDS THROUGH ART / OMA
Opening Minds through Art (OMA) was selected for a 2021 Maude’s Award for Innovation in Alzheimer’s Care. This recognition of OMA’s excellence in enriching the quality of life for people living with dementia, their caregivers, and in improving students’ attitudes toward people living with dementia, strengthened OMA’s applications when seeking other funding opportunities. This resulted in funding from Encore.org, Next50 Initiative, RRF Foundation for Aging, Rupe Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as continued support from the Ohio Department of Aging and the Ohio Department of Medicaid.
The additional funding received allowed us to develop OMA’s virtual derivative in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This new program is called ScrippsAVID (AVID stands for Arts-based, Virtual, Intergenerational, and Dementia-friendly). This web-based, video-chat platform aims to bridge the age divide and reduce loneliness. ScrippsAVID is free for anyone to use and is designed to meet the accessibility needs of people living with dementia while providing an engaging, interactive platform for all older and younger adults to share creative expressions.
Our collaboration with The Myaamia Center, a Miami Tribe organization at Miami University charged with reconnecting tribal members of all ages to their indigenous knowledge system and cultural heritage, allowed us to use ScrippsAVID to ‘link the generations’ (aanhkwiniikioni). This furthers ScrippsAVID’s commitment to inclusivity while engaging new audiences.
Since the Maude’s Award in 2021, we have also published additional peer-reviewed articles and presented at 40+ conferences. For her work as OMA’s Founder, Dr. Lokon received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Ohio Art Education Association (OAEA) and a Fulbright Scholar Award to establish culturally relevant OMA and ScrippsAVID programs in Indonesia in 2023. The spread of OMA programming around the world allowed us to host OMA’s first annual virtual art show in December of 2023. Here is the OMA Virtual Art Show gallery link with 77 artwork selected from 464 submissions by OMA artists, aged 65-103, living in 30 cities around the US, Canada and Indonesia.
Award Category: Making Connections – Individuals
MARY CRESCENZO / THE PLANET ALZHEIMER’S GUIDE
The impact of winning a Maude’s Award continues to inspire and allow me to expand my mission as an arts strategist/practitioner, author, and playwright to provide education and awareness about Alzheimer’s and dementia. 2023 was a productive year for me that set the stage for future projects and events. In March, I presented at the annual Alzheimer’s Association’s Colorado Rocky Mountain Chapter, on “How the Arts Can Transform the Life of Your Loved One and Your Own” based on my book, The Planet Alzheimer’s Guide. Due to the growing interest of caregivers on how creative writing can be a way to cope with caregiving challenges, I’ve expanded and renamed my creative writing workshop for caregivers, “Self-Care through Creative Writing for Caregivers: Respite, Relaxation, Rejuvenation and Revelation” to include anyone who is a caregiver for someone with special needs. In August, this workshop was presented for Seth Rogen’s non-profit, Hilarity for Charity’s Community Lounge support group, and in November, for the Caregiver OC Resource Center, through Providence St. Jude Medical Center, Orange County, CA, at their annual caregiver retreat. I’ve also established an umbrella for my work, entitled, Care Through the Arts℠.
In 2024, on March 10, my play Planet A, about the inner world of Alzheimer’s, will be staged at the Tarzana Cultural Center in Tarzana, CA, and will include a mini-creative workshop after the “Topic Talk Back” for all audience members. Internationally, in April, I will be speaking at the 36th Global Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International in Krakow, Poland on “How Theatre as Art and Public Forum Can Foster Dementia Awareness”. I will also be co-hosting a new monthly segment called “Dementia and The Arts™” on Alzheimer’s Speaks with founder/host Lori La Bey. We encourage people living with dementia or caregivers and the people they care for who are living with dementia, to join us and share how the arts have helped them live and thrive. Our first guest will be Sam Simon, known as “Dementia Man,” a playwright and author living with dementia. We’ll discuss how theatre and writing can be a creative, informative and empowering means of self-care. Through outreach, connection, and communication on how arts engagement can enrich the lives of persons living with dementia and their caregivers, and dispel myths associated with cognitive decline, my Maude’s Award endures in support of my future endeavors.
NICOLE CHILIVIS
I am a clinical chaplain and currently working on a hospice team in Kitsap County. In 2020 I was the grateful recipient of the Maude’s Award for my use of Virtual Reality to bring joy and connection to people living with dementia and their care partners. Shortly after winning the award, our nation and world experienced a pandemic. Loneliness and isolation increased, and my work as a healthcare chaplain drastically changed. Since I could not have the typical face-to-face contact with patients and community members, my best friend and I got creative! We bought 360 cameras and began creating beautiful experiences in virtual reality. We filmed beach scenes reading poetry, farm scenes reading Psalms, and mountaintop scenes leading breathing exercises and meditations, and, from our living rooms, we led virtual chair yoga. Additionally, we were given a grant by The University of Washington’s I-Corps program to further our research in VR and dementia care. As the world began to open again, we were delighted to share our new VR content with memory care facilities and assisted living facilities in both Seattle and the Kitsap Peninsula. We loved every minute of it!
Currently, I am partnering with two organizations on Bainbridge Island, Island Volunteer Caregivers (IVC) and Bainbridge Island Senior Living, to explore a pilot VR program on the island as a way of addressing isolation and loneliness in our aging population. IVC is conducting research on how to support individuals with dementia-related illnesses and their caregivers with the goal to facilitate connection and joy through exciting virtual worlds and experiences.
I am filled with deep gratitude and humility to be a part of the incredible Maude’s Award’s community.
FAYRON EPPS / ALTERTM
The Maude’s Award has been particularly meaningful to us at AlterTM as it has helped us carry out our mission to serve and support African American families facing dementia. Since receiving the Maude’s Award, the Alter program has experienced exponential growth! We have supported 78 Black faith communities across 14 states and developed an international presence in Ghana. Thanks to the Maude’s Award recognition, numerous individuals and organizations have contacted us to learn about the program. We have established organizational partnerships and leveraged these new relationships into programs for our church partners, such as the Faith in Action Toolkit. With the support of our partners, we have also organized a Dementia Summit to allow us to reach more faith leaders and families in the African American community. We are on our way to changing the landscape of dementia support and care for Black and African American families!
BONNIE ERICKSON / NATIONAL COUNCIL OF DEMENTIA MINDS
As the President and Co-Founder of the National Council of Dementia Minds, I am thrilled to witness the remarkable growth and impact of our organization during the past five years. We have transcended boundaries, expanding our reach to provide essential support, education, advocacy, and research initiatives not only across all 50 states but also in more than 14 countries worldwide. What began as a humble endeavor has evolved into a powerful force, empowering advocates—individuals living with dementia—to shatter misconceptions, eradicate stigma, and ignite a beacon of hope. Together, we are realizing our vision of ‘People living with dementia transforming the worldview of Neurocognitive Disorders,’ fostering a community united in resilience and determination. Our collective efforts are not only shaping lives today but also laying the foundation for a brighter future. I am immensely proud of the legacy forged by all of the co-founders, including our visionary Executive Director, Brenda Roberts.
Our journey with the National Council of Dementia Minds has been truly remarkable. With each milestone, we’ve solidified our role as pioneers in advocating for living well with dementia and educating others to do the same. Our national community stands as a shining example of the profound impact of unity and compassion, forged through partnerships with organizations and individuals dedicated to our cause. Through our varied initiatives, from education to cutting-edge research collaborations, we’re not only enhancing lives today but also shaping a more inclusive and understanding society for the future. As I reflect on our journey, I am immensely proud to have played a role in the transformative impact of the National Council of Dementia Minds, and I am deeply grateful to be part of such a dedicated and impactful community.
LAURETTE KLIER / NANA’S BOOKS
I’m grateful for the opportunity to share the growth of NANA’S BOOKS since receiving the Maude’s Award two years ago. For me, the Maude’s Award has been a ray of promise. It has given me the confidence to grow the series into 40 books, now in digital and print editions. I believe that the award has opened doors for me, and I’m humbled to share that NANA’S BOOKS has earned a 2023 National Mature Media Award and a 2023 Service to Seniors Award from the National Society of Certified Senior Advisors. Maude’s Awards has had a significant impact on enhancing the lives of people living with dementia through championing fledgling innovations and creators who know we can and must do better. It has connected me with remarkable individuals who are also dedicated to this work, and their influence and contributions are an ongoing source of inspiration for my improvement and growth. I’m proud to be in their company.
As I craft new books, I find creative inspiration in considering what Maude Ferry would have enjoyed and appreciated. So many generous caregivers have given me their time and insights about their loved ones, as well as their stories, which sustain me, as well.
Looking forward, my focus remains on making these books accessible to all. To provide resources for elders and their carers to immerse themselves in art, literature, and cherished memories is my privilege. My gratitude for the support and recognition of Maude’s Awards is immeasurable. Dementia Spring was kind enough to do a piece on NANA’S BOOKS and their update is more comprehensive than mine. Thank you, Dr. Marc Rothman, Shannon Simcox and your team for spotlighting NANA’S BOOKS.
https://dementiaspring.org/spotlight/nanas-books-by-laurette-klier
DONNA NEWMAN-BLUESTEIN / DANCE FOR CONNECTION
This year’s plans include providing a keynote at Respite for All’s Conference for their program directors to educate them about the importance of dance and embodied caregiving for people with dementia. I will be leading at least two trainings, expand direct services for people in the Greater Boston area, begin a webinar series, continue working on a book and initiate a survey research project about dance and dementia, and present at conferences nationwide.
My direct services reach about 800 people with dementia/year, but since I educate COA staff, dance/movement therapists and educators, Octaband users worldwide, and others whose reach is much greater than I know, it would be difficult to estimate the number of people whom I am able to influence.
https://danceforconnection.com
HAILEY RICHMAN / KID CAREGIVERS
Since winning the prestigious Maude Award, I have been able to expand my organization. I have involved my school’s robotics team in service work at memory care facilities. I have recruited international volunteers and have expanded my Puzzle Time program to India. I now have an India Puzzle Ambassador! It is very meaningful since India lacks tools for helping Alzheimer’s patients. Our therapeutic Alzheimer’s puzzles and youth volunteers can provide enrichment to underserved communities there.
Additionally, I am working on a prototype to develop an app and tool to help prevent Alzheimer’s patients from falling. I am hoping to have a career in neuroscience or biomedical engineering to help eradicate Alzheimer’s and make the world better for both Alzheimer’s patients and their loved ones.
LISA SOMMERS / HEALING HARMONIES
Thanks to the Maude’s Award that we received, our group has been able to breathe a collective sigh of relief, knowing that we can continue to support the leadership and artistry of our amazing choir director, Eileen Ruby, as well as our accompanist, Matthew Duncan. Our group had a very successful fall of singing! We learned some new songs, sang our favorites, and began to learn about singing parts with lower voices and higher voices. Group members learn in a variety of ways (call and response, tactile/movement cues, repetition, projected lyrics), and we adjust in the moment to accommodate the needs of the group on that day. The leadership of the choir (speech-language pathologists Amanda Bernhard and Lisa Sommers, as well as Eileen Ruby as choir director) regularly pre-brief and debrief about what worked and what didn’t in each rehearsal.
The group is continuously welcoming new members; we have an excellent relationship with area general practitioners, neurologists, geriatric nurses, and therapists. We have spread the word to various support groups in our communities as well and welcome new members on a continuous basis. Of course, we have people who might have other things going on in their lives and they need to take a break from choir to focus on a particular health challenge. We are delighted when they come back after hospitalization or another type of challenge, and there are usually hearty greetings and hugs when they return! Our group welcomes caregivers as well and it is a joy to see them singing and enjoying the music. We bond with each other in a variety of ways, from making music together to chatting during our cookie break. Our group also brings joy to library patrons, as we hold our rehearsals in a lovely meeting area in the center of the library. Despite closed doors, our music is still heard faintly, and the patrons report that they love hearing this music as they browse for books. We look forward to many more happy years making music in this safe and accessible space!
LORETTA VENEY / LORETTA VENEY INSPIRES MEMORIES USING LEGO SERIOUS PLAY!
I’m soooo excited about 2024 and beyond!! At the end of 2023, I had just started offering my LEGO-themed puzzles as a box of engagement tools for senior centers and adult day programs serving people with dementia! My plan for the future is to increase the distribution of the puzzles into senior centers and memory care communities so that engagement can continue without me having to be present!!! I held a LEGO art session on Jan 11th in Maryland for a Senior Summit Association for those who work with seniors ages 50-100 (many of whom have dementia). I taught them the beauty of creating art with LEGO bricks and they asked if I could also teach them how to make the puzzles! I may have a class where I teach them how to do that as an activity. Kind of like Sip and Paint classes where people take home a painting they usually get rid of at some point. In the class I want to teach to adult day workers AND Caregivers, the resulting puzzles they make in class can help keep those with dementia engaged for long periods of time.
I work with residents of memory care and assisted living communities, adult day and rec program professionals and family caregivers of those with dementia, since 2017 I’ve been providing LEGO Serious Play (LSP) sessions to more than 160 groups. During COVID alone, I delivered 92 virtual sessions for those with dementia and their caregivers and / or just the caregivers. In addition to the focused puzzles sales and classes, I will also be providing training of new LSP facilitators to work within their communities to serve even more people! I trained my first group of four new facilitators at the Park Central Senior Living Community in Amarillo, TX. My second class will be held in February in Maryland!
I believe the future will be very bright!
Award Category: Supporting Care Partners – Organizations
Awarded annually to the individual or organization that has provided impactful education, training, or support for care partners of persons living with dementia.
DUET: PARTNERS IN HEALTH and AGING
In 2021, Maude’s Award’s selected Duet: Partners in Health and Aging as an award recipient for its Finding Meaning and Hope discussion series that brings Dr. Pauline Boss and lessons from her book, “Loving Someone Who Has Dementia” to family caregivers struggling with their complex grief known as ambiguous loss. Maude’s Awards’ $25,000 donation was Duet’s first investment toward bringing Finding Meaning and Hope and wrap around support services, virtually, to isolated dementia family caregivers nationwide.
Since receiving our Maude’s Award, significant progress has been made expanding Finding Meaning and Hope and other services to family caregivers, both in-person and virtually. To date:
- We have trained Finding Meaning and Hope facilitators in 14 states and Canada.
- Dementia Australia has contacted us with a request to train facilitators in all their regional offices to offer Finding Meaning and Hope nationwide.
- In late November, a CBS correspondent and film crew spent a day and a half with us filming a segment on Duet’s work to support isolated dementia family caregivers to air on CBS Saturday Morning in early 2024.
- In partnership with Só Tsoh Foundation, Finding Meaning and Hope is now being offered to family caregivers on the Navajo Nation. In early 2024, the series, voiced over in Diné, will be offered to Navajo caregivers in their native language.
- Meaning and Hope Institute’s Facebook page achieved 10,000 followers this month, and we are now using our full monthly Google ad grants, valued at $10,000/month, to promote the project. Both are firsts for Duet!
Duet is deeply grateful to Maude’s Awards for supporting our vision that every family caregiver of a loved one with Alzheimer’s or related dementia has the resources, guidance, and support to care for their loved one while maintaining their own health and sense of hope.
ELDERWISE
Our work continues to thrive at the Memory Hub with the dual aims of offering programs to enrich the lives of adults living with dementia and spreading the philosophy of Spirit-Centered Care S-CC. Spirit-Centered Care resonates more and more with care partners and those with loved ones living with dementia. The unique quality of this philosophy is that it enriches the lives of the care partner as well as those with whom they interact.
As 2024 begins Elderwise is expanding programing with a focus on serving more persons living with dementia in a broader area as well as making diversity a priority. Regarding the philosophy, we are carrying that forward with multiple talks in the community and marketing our online course, an overview of S-CC to residential community caregivers, students and individuals providing care in their own home. This course is accredited by DSHS for one CEU.
We are grateful to Maude’s Awards for acknowledging our service to the community and for helping us move into the future with increasing strength and security.
I’M STILL HERE FOUNDATION
The 2022 Maude’s Award to the I’m Still Here Foundation gave us a real boost – helping us realize that our new direction – to fund Innovative Dementia Programs nationwide rather than ourselves developing one or two “legacy” programs – is a fruitful one. Since receiving the Maude’s Award, we have raised the funds to support many more programs than the ones for which we were given a Maude’s Award.
Among our recently funded programs for people living with dementia are an equine program, where participants get to know “their” horse and learn the “horse handshake”, an intergenerational dog biscuit cooking program where persons with dementia teach youngsters how to cook and then deliver the biscuits to dog shelters, music programs for couples affected by dementia, where a music therapist builds music playlists reflecting the couples’ history.
Since our 2022 Maude’s Award, our staffing has been bolstered with consultants supporting the foundation’s grants management, fundraising and administration, and social media management. Altogether we have moved to another plateau of organizational and service provision.
We have grown our Board with members now representing major statewide health care organizations, academic institutions, high-quality low-income health care, dementia care partners, researchers, and financial and legal experts from broad geographic areas — Georgia, Ohio, New York State, Washington State, Tennessee, and Massachusetts.
Next in our strategic plan is establishing a firm financial footing to support the Innovation Grants program, as well as a stable and qualified staff to oversee and manage the programs.
Two future initiatives we are working on are: A standard program evaluation approach, and a simple way to enable others to learn from our grantees on how to implement our funded programs. As well, we are working on best formatting to translate the final reports of grantees into user-friendly “how-to” guidebooks.
Our large mission-related objective is to work closely with other organizations to establish that the non-drug (non-pharmacological, psycho-social, ecopsychosocial) treatment opportunities that we and so many others are developing, practicing, and promoting are at least equal partners to drug interventions, and in some cases a viable and more effective alternative to behavior-modification medications.
METHOW AT HOME
Maude’s Awards has supported Methow at Home to launch expanded programming for dementia education and care partner support that continues to evolve in ways which surprise us, building bridges to other programs that make our dementia programs very holistic.
In the fall of 2023, we began offering Caring for People Living with Dementia, a 4-week comprehensive education module. These quarterly workshops have been filling to capacity and have spearheaded a new monthly dementia care partner support group which began in February 2024. An improved Social Respite Care volunteer training is also scheduled to start in February, which will increase our skilled volunteer team to provide respite for families living with dementia in the household.
One challenge for both the dementia workshops and the support groups has been to free up the care partner to attend when the loved one can’t be left home alone. We envisioned weaving together education modules and the Methow Creative Aging program, an art making and arts engagement program for adults living with dementia and their care partners, to provide supervised art sessions during the workshops and support groups. To our delight, more care partners can commit to attending these programs, getting the much-needed education and support they were hoping for.
“I spent a delightful two hours with Tom yesterday while his wife attended the session for caregivers of people with dementia. After learning about his music background, I asked him about favorite styles, and was pleased to learn that we had that in common. So, while we experimented with clay and watercolors, we sang beloved oldies together, and I also played a few classical pieces for him (Yo-Yo Ma). It was a very lovely experience – one that we both benefited from, and I look forward to being with him for the next two upcoming sessions.” –Carol R. Methow Creative Aging volunteer
Our instructors, staff, volunteers, and care partners are bringing their compassion, skills, and experience to make these beautiful moments happen. It gives us all hope that these programs will consistently provide quality support and education for the most difficult kind of caregiving.
HOSPICE SAVANNAH’S EDEL CAREGIVER INSTITUTE (ECI)
The Edel Caregiver Institute (ECI) is pleased to share our continued growth as 2023 saw us busier than ever before, bringing our total number of caregivers served to more than 2,200. We assisted the majority of the family caregivers in finding resources, providing education, and emotional support through support groups or individual consultations. ECI is in the process of applying for the CMS GUIDE (Guiding and Improved Dementia Experience) Program in conjunction with Hospice Savannah’s Steward Center for Palliative Care. Through GUIDE, and in partnership with Teepa Snow’s Positive Approach to Care (PAC®), we anticipate furthering the cause of those living with dementia by serving, supporting, and training even more dementia family caregivers and professionals.
http://www.edelcaregiverinstitute.org
Award Category: Supporting Care Partners – Individuals
CAROL B. AMOS / THE CAREGIVING PRINCIPLE®
I was honored when The Caregiving Principle® received a 2021 Maude’s Awards. The Caregiving Principle®, a novel approach to caregiving, is introduced in my book H.O.P.E. for the Alzheimer’s Journey: Help, Organization, Preparation, and Education for the Road Ahead. I have continued to conduct workshops on The Caregiving Principle® and spread my message of H.O.P.E. so caregivers can have a less stressful, more rewarding journey.
The Maude’s Awards allowed me to provide more caregivers with a complimentary copy of H.O.P.E. for the Alzheimer’s Journey. I offered copies to other Maude’s Awards recipients and nominees. H.O.P.E has been donated to Lori La Bey for Alzheimer’s Speaks and the churches in Fayron Epps’ Alter dementia program. H.O.P.E. has also been door prizes for the University of MN “Caring for People with Memory Loss” conference, the Long Island Alzheimer’s, and Dementia Center “Here’s to Hope” Luncheon and Fashion Show, the Alzheimer’s Services of the Capital Area Lunch-n-Learns, the Maude’s Awards award ceremony, and many other events. In the spirit of Maude’s Awards, I have been touching as many caregivers as possible.
I am also researching studies and small trials resulting in cognitive improvement as a result of lifestyle changes and non-pharmacological treatments. My desire is to increase awareness of these lifestyle interventions and increase availability of research-based natural treatments to help eliminate Alzheimer’s disease.
DAN COHEN / RIGHT TO MUSIC
For 2024, I am hoping to make the case that music access is a human right, and that persons with dementia deserve to stay connected with music that best keeps them in touch with themselves, their sense of self-worth, and keeps them connected with all those in their lives. I am also collaborating with advocates in other countries to improve music best practices in care and public awareness.
JUDITH A LEVY EDM, OTR / ACTIVITIES TO DO WITH YOUR PARENT WHO HAS ALZHEIMER’S DEMENTIA
I can’t believe that five years have passed since the inception of Maude’s Awards. Back then we were in the midst of Covid, and all of our communications took place either on-line or on Zoom. Thank goodness time has passed, vaccines have been developed and panic about being in contact with others and without masks has calmed down.
I was thrilled to be one of the recipients of the initial Maude’s Awards for “Innovation in Alzheimer’s Care.” It was an honor, and I was so happy to be recognized for my book. It was the first time that a format was available to describe an activity and objectively evaluate it. It offered, and continues to offer, ideas for communication, burnout prevention and ways to improve socialization. The book is more than a list of activities and it has been well received. Winning the Award afforded it even more credibility. As Maude’s Awards has grown, the families and medical community have certainly benefited from the programs that you have highlighted. I’m glad to be in their company. Thank you! Thank you!
For the past five years I have been busy as both a guest speaker at Alzheimer family support groups as well as at staff training meetings. I’ve brainstormed with those affected by this dreadful illness, again on-line and on Zoom, in both of my personae – as the caregiver of ten years for her mom, and as an occupational therapist who dealt with clients who found themselves in a similar caregiving role. It’s been a most rewarding and humbling experience.
ALLYSON SCHRIER / THRIVING WITH DEMENTIA
I was thrilled to win a Maude’s Award in 2020 for my work under the auspices of Thriving with Dementia. I started that company in response to my role as a family care partner to my husband with dementia. I saw a need for care partners in family and community settings to better understand what dementia is and best practices around supporting both themselves and the person they care for. I taught classes, facilitated a support group, delivered workshops, and provided 1:1 consultation. I also worked part-time at the University of Washington’s Memory and Brain Wellness Center managing a program aimed at helping doctors in WA State be better equipped to detect, diagnose, and support people with dementia.
My energy around supporting both those giving and receiving dementia care has not waned since I won a Maude’s Award. I still run a twice-monthly support group, deliver a limited number of workshops, and help individual families struggling with a dementia diagnosis. Most of my time, however, is dedicated to another company I founded, Zinnia Technologies. Our app, Zinnia, streams dementia-friendly videos that make care easier and more meaningful. Our focus is on supporting the 98% of families with a dementia diagnosis supporting a loved one at home.
DR. LAMA SIBAI / THE BRAIN AND MEMORY HEALTH GROUP
Since receiving the Maude’s Awards, we’ve made some exciting strides that we’re pleased to share! Together with my colleague, Alice Allen-Redfern, MSW, we’ve enhanced our model of care since winning the Maude’s Awards in 2020. We established The Brain and Memory Health Group which is a counseling, consulting and diagnostic practice specializing in brain health; this venture has allowed us to expand our reach across Washington and become the specialists that folks can turn to when looking for answers along the dementia and caregiving journey.
Looking ahead to 2024, we’re planning on growing our team as well as merging with company Magnolia to further enhance and scale our programs and services even further by using innovative, person-centered technology. The Maude’s Awards support was instrumental in helping us create a user-friendly website and develop resources that offer practical strategies for clinics and communities. We’re grateful to the Maude’s Awards team for their support in 2020 as we continue our mission to support those navigating the challenges of dementia. All the best on your 5th anniversary from The Brain and Memory Health Group team!
https://www.brainandmemoryhg.com
DANA TERRITO / THE MEMORY WHISPERER
The 2022 Maude’s Award recognized my work in voluntarily writing a weekly Alzheimer’s Q and A newspaper column, “The Memory Whisperer,” as a community service for all those affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. To date, I have submitted more than 500 columns with Louisiana’s largest newspaper, The Advocate, (daily circulation, 36,685), to educate and inform the public. I feel there is a continuing need to provide information, new trends, support, and resources to caregivers and affected individuals.
Being recognized with a Maude’s Award has assisted me in launching a new podcast. In collaboration with iHeart Radio Podcasts and the Seneca Women Network Platforms, I was selected as one of ten women identified as the next top female podcasters. In this podcast, “The Memory Whisperer,” I conduct thoughtful conversations with others about the disease and/or disease journey. My guests have included actress Christine Ebersole, TV personality Leeza Gibbons, Professor Fayron Epps, PhD, Olympian Figure Skater Mariah Bell, and Singer, Jay Allen, to name a few. Again, it is my fondest hope that this additional platform will assist in my continuing goal and passion to educate and inform the public about Alzheimer’s disease. The podcast, initially set to launch in June 2023, was delayed because of my cancer diagnosis. However, after treatments, I am now a “Thriver” (as opposed to a “survivor”) and I count myself very blessed to continue the work I do on behalf of the Alzheimer’s population.
And, ten years of personal journaling led to the publication of my first book What My Grandchildren Taught Me About Alzheimer’s Disease, which was released in October 2023 by Equinox Publishing. The book has been recognized with the 2023 Today’s Caregiver Friendly Award 2023 and was also designated as a 2023 Reader’s Favorite with a “5 Star” award rating.
I am humbly grateful for the Maude’s Award because it has opened the doors of public awareness about Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and has helped me in broadening the scope of reaching those who are affected by disease and who need support and resources on a daily basis.
VALERIE TSOSIE / SO’ TSOH FOUNDATION
Upcoming Legal Day Conference Series for Caregivers
Upcoming Caregiver Summit April 11, 2024, in Window Rock, AZ
Free CPR/First Aid class in May 2024
https://www.sotsohfoundation.org
Maude’s Awards annually gives three $25,000 awards to organizations and up to five $5,000 awards to individuals excelling in one of four categories of care for persons living with dementia and care partners. Learn more about the awards at MaudesAwards.org.
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