When Katie Swartwout left her husband at Bright Horizons for the first time, she felt horrible.
“When I went to pick him up he was sitting across the room looking at the door. … When I came in, he had this expression of, ‘Oh, where have you been?!’ like I had left him for four months,” said Swartwout. “He slept for the next 28 hours.”
These days, though, that’s far from the case.
“Let me tell you what it was like trying to get him out of there today. It has changed so much because he just loves being there,” said Swartwout. “I have to coax him to come home with me.”
Swartwout shared her story about being a caregiver at the Thanks for Caregiving event on Thursday, Nov. 17, at Beltrone Living Center, one of Bright Horizon’s locations. Seniors and their families enjoyed churros, coffee, tea, a raffle and each took home a Thanksgiving pie.
November is National Caregivers Month and the annual event is Bright Horizons’ way of thanking caregivers for their “tireless efforts” in caring for their loved ones. Bright Horizons is a day program for seniors run by the Colonie Senior Services Centers at threelocations —Beltrone Living Center, Pine Grove Methodist Church, Corondelet—where they eat breakfast, lunch, snack and spend the day doing activities and socializing.
“It’s a place where caregivers can drop off their loved ones in an environment that is safe, fun and caring,” said Kelly Mateja, CSSC’s director of programs and services. “They do a lot of physical activities to keep their bodies moving but also cognitive activities like a word jumble or board games.”
Bright Horizons serves about 90 families and has members in their 50s through to their 90s, though the majority are toward the older end of that spectrum.
For Swartwout, whose husband has Alzheimer’s disease, Bright Horizons has been “a blessing.”
“The opportunities that Bright Horizons provides are things that I cannot do for him at home,” said Swartwout.
Before becoming a Bright Horizons member, her husband was rapidly becoming a different person. He would gravitate to the TV and became a couch potato. He stopped reading, something that used to be one of his favorite activities. He became less responsive.
Now, that’s all changed.
“There’s socialization with people, not only of his own age because there’s over 20 years between us, but also people who have the same difficulties he does,” said Swartwout. “If you see him in a social situation outside Bright Horizons, he’s practically mute, he will not speak. He is so fearful of making a mistake, so worried about not being able to express what it is he has to say.”
Miscommunication isn’t an issue at Bright Horizons and her husband’s fear quickly evaporates as soon as he steps through the door.
“He doesn’t worry about not being able to express himself because everyone’s having a hard time,” said Swartwout. “He has conversations that I cant understand but it doesn’t matter that I don’t understand it as long as he does.”
The constant stimulation he receives during his Tuesdays and Thursdays at Bright Horizons is also having a positive effect.
“It has been wonderful for his cognition. I can see a difference in how well he’s able to respond,” said Swartwout.
But Swartwout almost didn’t send her husband to a day program. She’s played the role of caregiver to five people in her lifetime and said with each one, the initial reaction was that she was the only person who could provide proper care.
“I thought I knew him better, I knew what was right for him and no one else could do that good of a job,” said Swartwout. “Well, the Lord has a way of telling me when I’m wrong and certainly did in this case. … Bright Horizons truly can take care of him equally, if not better, than I can.”
The extra help and few hours of freedom are also a plus for Swartwout herself.
“I can go grocery shopping by myself. That might not seem like a biggie but being able to push your own cart around the store, I mean that’s just a delight,” said Swartwout. “Being able to make appointments for myself and to go places where I don’t have to drag him around, don’t have to worry about what he’s doing in the waiting room.”
Sue Solomon’s mother, Dottie, has also benefited invaluably from Bright Horizons at Pine Grove Methodist Church. She went from barely eating and sitting on the couch doing nothing all day, to fooling new interns into thinking she’s a program volunteer because of her constant helpfulness.
“I pick her up every morning and she brags to everyone now that she goes to church six days a week,” said Solomon.
Since attending the day program every day, Solomon’s mother has picked back up some of her favorite hobbies.
“She really enjoys getting out, enjoys being with people, likes the socializing and it stimulates her mind; she’s the word jumble queen,” said Solomon.
Solomon said the change has been felt through the entire family.
“We can have peace of mind knowing that she’s safe, knowing she’s getting good healthy meals,” said Solomon. “She’s eating, she’s more alert, even outside of the program.”
For more information about Bright Horizons or Colonie Senior Services Center, visit www.colonieseniors.org.
