Initial Reflection - Kalee

The Best Friends Day Center is an incredible organization that four of my classmates and I are going to get the opportunity to volunteer with over the next semester. Best Friends is an organization that is operated by the Christian Care Communities in Kentucky for people with early to late stages of dementia.

Dementia is a mental disorder that can have effects on memory, personality, and reasoning skills of its victims. According to the World Health Organization, it affects over 47 million people around the world. Alzheimer's is the most commonly known form of dementia and effects around 5.3 million of Americans today. 5.1 million of these Americans are considered senior citizens.

When my group and I went to visit the center for our orientation program, we actually got to have some time with the participants in the program. When the large group of students walked into the room, it was so sweet to see how their faces lit up at the sight of all of the new visitors. Though they are getting the chance to interact with each other throughout the day, it is so important for them to get to interact with us as well.

During the orientation, we found out what kind of help we would be to the program. Each day we visit, we will be able to come in a spend time with a different individual. Everyone at Best Friends has a page full of information about them that we can read over before getting the chance to talk to them. As Ms. Harkless, an employee at the center, talked to us about these binders, she told us just a few examples of the incredible stories that some of their participants had to share with us.

While watching the Miss America competition just this past week, I watched Miss Colorado perform a very unique talent for the talent portion - a monologue. In this monologue, she talks about what it is like to be a nurse; she speaks of one patient in particular. Miss Colorado, Kelley, talks about one of her favorite patients, Joe. Joe is a man with Alzheimer's that Kelley gets the opportunity to spend time with talking to every day.

Even though Kelley goes on to talk about what it means to her to be a nurse, I got something from this video as well. She shares a personal experience that she has gotten to have with one of her patients with dementia. After hearing her talk about the great life conversations and all of the things she learned from her patient Joe, I am excited to see what experiences and knowledge awaits us by volunteering with the participants at the Best Friends Day Center.

- Kalee Fuller