Logo-Dementia Friendly AmericaHow does a lifelong learning program fit in a Memory Care setting? Whether it is Dementia Friendly Tempe, a Senior Day Center, or a senior adult living community for memory care, organizations across the US are using lifelong learning classes to generate enthusiasm and inspire participation.

Every Monday, local residents and their loved ones, gather at the Tempe Public Library for the “Memory Café.” The care givers attend a support group discussion and the loved ones attend their own class. Sometimes it is music therapy or a discussion of current events or a lifelong learning class. At the end of a recent lifelong learning class on the “1950s” one of the participants said, “I have forgotten how much I knew about the 1950s!” She felt so good about her experience at class that she told her husband, “This was the best class I have ever attended.” Her husband asked her what the class was about and she said, “I don’t remember but it was really fun.”

A lifelong learning class for memory care is not a lecture. It is an “experience.” What a lifelong learning class provides is an opportunity to be treated like an adult, belong to a class, and perhaps recall previous experiences and even tell funny stories.

For senior adults (and any learner) their knowledge is based on a combination of education and experience. Creating programs that provide the opportunity to use both knowledge and experience provides validation of who they were and that they are still that person today. More importantly their participation in a class gives them a sense of belonging as well as contributing. All of these things help people have a positive and meaningful experience and at the end of the day that is a really good thing.