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314spotlightnj2_2026-03-14-09-19-02

I think of my friend Greg and so I was helping him eat and he was a big Springsteen fan tapping, I'm tapping and I'm like, Greg, sing with me born in the and I wait, I'm patient and he goes. USA. And it brought tears to my eyes because I saw the pearl. Revealed the oyster opened up and I was able to get that connection with him. I was able to bring him back to that identity, that sense of joy. Justin, Pam, and Stephanie are with Brandywine by Monarch. They are talking about their dementia program, which is a fabulous thing to have. You have to tell everybody you heard him saying right, he was on Spotlight New Jersey years ago with his sister. Yeah, it's so happy to be back um and to be back with performing and and utilizing music to really reach a needed population numbers of people affected by dementia in this in the country everywhere is increasing um and music is magic so a fun a fun little fact is that music, um, why it's impactful is that it with dementia on the left side of the brain is your language faculty. On the right side is where you have your rhythm and so that's where you have your song, your singing, your rhythm, your prayers, anything with like a rhyme and so dementia affects primarily the left first for most um so with Greg in that clip. He's I was enacting and engaging the right side of his brain, and that's when the magic happened where he normally was um had aphasia and so his his very limited voice and speech, but I was able to activate that right side of the brain and so when I was. him with with eating breakfast and being able to sing with him like it just brought me to tears. It's it's those little moments and those magical moments that we try to create with our with our residents, right? Tell me about those magical moments, Stephanie. We have a lot of magical moments in our community every day. Mostly our programs are tailored to their current cognitive function, so basically we want our residents to be successful and to lessen their anxieties. So anything that is tailored to their cognitive level, something of their past, something that they enjoy, works.

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0314 DELLA SPOTLIGHT PT 3

But these are going to be some just very strong basics of how to come alongside someone living with dementia. Eyes first, speak second, touch on third. Did I scare you? Are you OK? Was that rude? Yeah, very rude. Did you almost hit me? You could have, have, right? It depends what gemstone I was at, right, right. Thankfully she was aware of her surroundings because she's a sapphire and a healthy brain. You are watching Justin Zimmerman in action. He's director of resident experience and a certified dementia practitioner at Brandywine by Monarch. We also have Pam Jorgensen and Stephanie Gabor. Stephanie, tell me about the magical moments people experience and the programming you have. OK, well, some of our, um, magical moments I love creating is really searching for the residents, um, past experience so I, I reach in and find out what they used to love to do. And one of our residents used to love to go sailing, and I found that she did not go sailing in almost 40 years. It's been about 37 years since she last went sailing. She even bought a house off of an, uh, small island off of Portugal, lived there 6 months out of the year just to go sailing. So I arranged for her to go on a private sail out of Seaside Heights with um one of her best friends from our memory care unit, myself and my assistant, and of course the the captain of of the sailboat Mike, and it was wonderful it all came back to her. She had the most memorable magical moment day and um it's things like that that really, really. Pull up my heart because I'm very passionate about what I do and to see her living in that moment, how it all came back to her and for her just to take the wheel and start manning the sailboat again it was amazing. It was just amazing. I loved it and she loved it brings it all back. Yes, it brings it all back. That's why we really need a really good assessment. That's why we involve. Uh, family members, it's not just clinical at Brandywine, it's family members get involved, um, it's, it's the clinical aspect of it, and then all of our specialized programming that we do, we really try to hone in what's gonna be the best fit for the resident so they can have the best experience and, um, the best life, um, at our communities. Tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. Pam will share her journey as a caregiver. It will touch your heart and inspire you.

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315spotlightnj4_2026-03-15-09-15-57

You wanna make the eyes first you're building the connection, right? You're getting, you're building the relationship high and then you're slowly, if you can give me your hand, and you're slowly gonna go in to engage with the hand. And this is called hand on your hand. Everybody eyes over here with your hands, you can zoom in on this if you'd like. You're going in. Time to time And you're holding like this and you're building the connection. Doesn't that feel comfortable? Wow, that video is very touching and moving and says a lot. We are putting the attention on Brandywine by Monarch. Justin Zimmerman that you saw there in the video, of course, is one of the people sitting here at the table. Pam Jorgensen is the lead concierge and Stephanie Gabor is the life enrichment director. Wow, tell me all about that, ladies. Wow, wow. Well, I just, I wanted to add on to what Stephanie was saying before when we were talking about the sailing moments and this. I, as from a personal perspective, when I was looking for a place that I wanted to work, now I want to work full time, I had a chance to go to all these different communities and see what they're, you can't help but notice what the programming looks like with all of the residents, and every time I would come back to perform at Brandywine Princeton, where we're at Brandywine actually. All the brandy wins, to be honest with you, but particularly where Stephanie was, the programming was so robust, and I could see the reactions from the, from the residents, all the, all the work that Stephanie and her team put into, into the programming, it was so apparent and I knew that this would be the place for me because on a personal note, um, I was mentioning earlier that I always loved working with the senior population. I have been on a journey twice over with family members, with a grandparent and with my mother-in-law, and I just wish hindsight is twenty-twenty, right? I just wish back then I knew. That there are so many resources out there, places like Brandywine that could help me and help my family on the journey, you know, if I could give advice to anyone, anyone out there who is on this journey with a loved one on the dementia journey. I would say hands down ask for help don't do it alone find your resources people like Justin um I'm a certified dementia practitioner myself because I was so motivated and so moved to make a difference um find places like Brandywine that will. Make things just easier because you know what, as a caregiver, if you don't have your health and your sanity for a lack of better terms, you're not going to be able to help anyone so I wish I had these resources if I had known then what I know now so I just wanted to add that in there.

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315spotlightnj5_2026-03-15-09-17-58

But it's what's inside that we choose to focus on inside the oyster which isn't the prettiest to look at because the reality is that dementia is chronic. It doesn't get better, it only gets worse. And so our goal with the pearl is to re recognize that there's still humanity in there. There's still an awareness, it's just struggling to get out. And so what we need to do is we need to just really focus on how do we get those moments where we can get that pearl. To open up That is Justin Zimmerman with Brandywine by Monarch talking about their dementia programming. Justin, you have a thought you wanna share about this? Yes, so I wanted to share about the hand under hand technique which was created by Tipa Snow who is the what I call a dementia care guru known internationally, um, and so this clip that you are seeing is is talking. About and teaching that approach to our team members, which is just a great way to really build a connection with our residents and those that we're ser that we're there to serve, um, it's a great way to build um the relationship before you're going into care before you're trying to get your loved one to go to a meal or or go to the next activity it's how are we building a connection with our loved ones before getting them to do what what they need to do so. How are you all getting out the word that you have this service for your residents? We do, um, flyers, um, Facebook, uh, I post in, uh, local newspapers that we have, um, these educational, uh, seminars happening. Tell us about everything you have to offer residents and their families when it comes to dementia. Yeah, so, so we're all like we all, we all love this, so, um, we, we offer support groups for our families, um, that we invite for our, our residents, their family members, as well as even if a family member doesn't have someone living in our community, we want, like I want, we want, we wanna support the community around us because this affects everybody so we are a, a, a, you know, a safe haven place we wouldn't come in. Learn, ask questions, um, come visit and take advantage of the amenities that we have within our community where we have performers, educational lectures, we have, um, you know, great food, you know, maybe you could just give us a call and they can come in and just spend the day with us, come in and spend a program, come to one of our music programs, our music therapy programs, just come and visit and see what we're about.

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315spotlightnj6_2026-03-15-12-22-50

Right now you're looking at Stephanie who is with Brandywine by Monarch. Go ahead and tell us about your community outreach for dementia. OK, so we do have a lot of um variety of different programming and I really um like to engage our residents in past interests, um, and also get them involved in the community at the. Same time, so with spring coming, I'm really excited because we have a fabulous garden at Brandywine Princeton. We have grown so many vegetables and the residents have plant them. They, um, have watered them. They weed, and we have cute little shirts of them. It's called the Can You Dig It Garden Glove. That's so great. They got t-shirts and they got little hats, um, and it's, it's so nice and they feel like a team, so it's like a group effort and, um, at the end of the season as the vegetables are need to be harvested, we, we harvest all the vegetables and we bring them to our local food pantry. That's a great idea. This must be one of the things you love considering you've had family members who have dementia. Absolutely, um, I can't emphasize enough and I want to address anyone who's out there, anyone who's out there who is in a similar situation that I was in, and again I went over it twice over through this process. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Go out there, look for your resources. There's so many people who are willing to help as a caregiver and support you. It's not just about the resident, the person on the journey, it's about the caregiver, and I know, having been in many, uh, communities in the Brandywine family, if you will, Brandywine has so many wonderful amenities and programs to offer. It's worth a look. It is absolutely worth a look. Don't try and do it alone, and you have more programs to come. You are working on other ideas. Absolutely, yes, so we are, we're always, um, looking to up the bar, raise the bar, and elevate our programming and our experience, um, for our, for our residents, for our families, and for our community. So we have 35 communities through. Several states, uh, like 17 of our communities are in New Jersey and, um, very easy to find us. Just go to Brandywine Living by Monarch and, um, find us, come visit us, come spend some time with us, come to one of Justin's classes, come to one of Pam's fabulous performances and come be part of the Brandywine family.

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Officials joined News 12’s Della Crews to discuss the services the business has to offer.

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