Final Service Reflection

It is sad to see my time volunteering at Best Friends be over, but I am grateful for the opportunity and experiences it has given me.

Written Reflection 3 - Kalee Fuller

As my weeks volunteering with the Best Friends Day Center have come to a close, I am able to reflect back on my experiences and see all that I have learned and accomplished. It has been such a pleasure to be able to work with such amazing participants, employees, and other volunteers over the semester.

One of the couple book shelves filled with all
types of books, historical to fictional.

When I was first assigned to the Best Friends group, I was both excited and nervous to work with people who had dementia. I was unsure of the “correct” way to help them and talk to them if there was one, and it was an unusual environment for me all together. After my first week volunteering at the day center, I was excited to go back the next week. We had fun singing with the participants and playing games during group time. It was much more relaxed and easy going than I had expected it to be. 

The weeks went on and I began to get more and more comfortable going to Best Friends and talking to the people there. Even though they may not always remember me, I remembered each of them and the different parts of their personality that would stand out during our group time—their sense of humor, the way they danced, or how loud they sang. 

The table filled with magazines and activities for the participants. 

One of my past few weeks was the first time that I had ever gotten to spend more one on one time with the patients there, and it was even more rewarding than the group time I had experienced before. It was also the first time that I had ever gotten to do any other activity besides singing the songs with the participants. Getting to have individual conversations with different people and learn more about them was awesome. They each have stories and love to share them with us. 

It was during this time that I realized how greatly this time spent at Best Friends has also impacted me, not just the people I have gotten the opportunity to work with. I have also realized how much I will miss going there every week and getting to see their faces when we walk through the door. Overall, it has been such a rewarding time for me and I am so happy I got the chance to participate. 

Analyzing a TED Talk - Kalee Fuller

Link to the TED Talk

When we were given the assignment to analyze a TED Talk, I was excited to see what was out there that had any relation to the Best Friends Center. I found a very interesting Talk by Samuel Cohen from June of this year called “Alzheimer’s is not normal aging—and we can cure it.” 

Cohen delivering his TED Talk.

Cohen began his TED Talk with a story about a woman who goes to the doctor with a brain issue, 114 years ago. As he explains the story, the audience finds out that the doctor was actually Dr. Alzheimer, and this was the first discovered case of Alzheimer’s. This was the only story that Cohen told through his TED Talk, yet he incorporated it throughout the entire thing, making sure to relate points back to it. Sometimes in the video, the cameramen would show the audience, everyone seeming so intrigued by what Cohen had to say, waiting for what he was going to inform them about next. 

While the story about the discovery of Alzheimer’s was interesting, Samuel Cohen went so much farther, explaining the effect that Alzheimer’s is having on the world today and the effect it can have in the future. Even though I’ve been working at Best Friends now for the entire semester, there was some much about the disease and the effect that it is having that I did not know. For example, the money spent on cancer research is five times greater than that spent on Alzheimer’s, yet the money spent on the care of people with Alzheimer’s is double the amount that is spent on cancer patients. Similarly, he mentions that of the top 10 death-causing diseases in this country, Alzheimer’s is the ONLY one that does not have something that has been created to stop it, control it, or at least slow it down. 

Cohen used this graphic to display the costs of
Alzheimer's research in comparison to cancer research.

So why are we as a country so unaware of Alzheimer’s, yet so aware of so many other diseases? Because awareness is not being raised. Cohen explains to audience that while the cancer patients and their families can be out promoting studies for their disease and raising awareness, people with Alzheimer’s cannot. And their families and loved ones are exhausted from the amount of care that the Alzheimer patient must receive. So, Cohen explains, that leaves the raising of awareness up to those who were listening to him; if a cure is not worked towards, Alzheimer’s is going to effect 1 in 2 people by the year 2050, when the generation of baby boomers has reached old age. 

Cohen stayed in this spot through his whole TED Talk. 

These jaw-dropping facts and realizations that Samuel Cohen delivers are very eye opening. Even though he stayed in the same position through his thoroughly effective 8 minute presentation and used very little hand gestures, the impact he had on his audience was huge. It was interesting to see that in Cohen’s situation it was more effective for him to deliver the hard facts and inform his audience than to really “paint a picture” for them, since the topic is so fact driven. Nevertheless, when he asks for the audience to help him raise awareness at the end of his TED Talk, I at least felt compelled to take some kind of action. 

After working in Best Friends and watching this TED Talk, I have found such an interest in Alzheimer’s and the research that is going into it. Working in the organization, I am seeing how it is directly effecting the patients and their families, so I am seeing how needed the additional support for the research is for them and their families. 

Video Reflection 2 - Kalee Fuller

Below is my link to my self-reflection video! Getting to be a part of the organization is such an incredible opportunity as I have gotten to learn more about not only dementia, but also how Best Friends operates and it's founding.

It's been an awesome experience thus far to get to work with all of the different individuals. I am excited to see what new things I will be able to encounter and learn in my future visits throughout this next semester. 

Week One Written Reflection - Kalee Fuller

Over this past weekend, the Best Friends team got the opportunity to go back to the Day Center to have our first official volunteer time. Going back, I was not sure what to expect. Our first visit during orientation had been so interesting as we got to meet everyone involved in the organization that I was excited to see what would happen during the second visit. 

The songs are led by the piano player. 

The participants at the Day Center follow a very structured routine each day. Both times that we have gotten to chance to spend time at Best Friends, we have been there for song time. All of the participants will sit in a circle with song books in their laps as someone plays the piano and leads us through the songs. The majority of the songs are simple songs from the 1950s or before, so most of us students do not know them. It is entertaining to see how much the older men and women enjoy singing these songs, even though most of us can’t sing along very well.

Everyone sits in the circle with the piano to
sing along with the piano.

As we sat in the circle, flipping through the song book, I sat down next to a woman named Virginia. She seemed to be in her 70’s or 80’s so I had assumed that she was just another patient. However, I soon found out that she was actually the founder of the Best Friends Organization. After talking to one of the volunteers, I learned that Virginia had created a method of training for volunteers in centers for people with dementia; and after developing the method, she has been able to travel to world and establish centers that teach based on her methods in 50 different countries. 

To hear that Virginia was so successful, yet still spent time in the Bridgepointe Day Center location with the patients was encouraging. Seeing her passion for the organization and the cause gave me the desire to give my all when working with the people at the center as well. 

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