Service-learning project benefits clients at Memory Matters

Many who suffer from some form of dementia experience a level of social isolation that can be detrimental to their overall health.

Julie Tharpe, executive director of Memory Matters, has seen this among her clients at the Brunswick nonprofit, which works to support the lives of people dealing with memory issues and their caregivers.

A partnership with College of Coastal Georgia, though, offers a way for Memory Matter’s clients to not only benefit from students’ research and knowledge but also to have a chance to socialize with a group of people in the community who care about their well being.

A service-learning project that began in 2021 took place again this semester and brought students in Aurora Ramos Nuñez’s cognitive behavior class to Memory Matters in hopes of benefiting the clients.

“Our clients love it, and I think their students really enjoy it as well,” Tharpe said.

The students visited with clients at Memory Matters on two separate occasions and spent time back on campus designing activities to benefit the clients and address their cognitive behavioral needs.

“They come on one day and they spend a couple of hours with the clients, getting to know them and getting to know their struggles and the things they were having the most problems with, and then they go back to their classroom and come up with games and ideas to help them through their struggles and to help their caregivers,” Tharpe said.

The students returned a week later to discuss their findings and ideas with the clients.

“They come up with things that I didn’t know,” Tharpe said. “Who knew you can find a map of your favorite grocery store online? I had no idea. But you can pull up the map and you can make your grocery list … That was one thing they presented.”

The clients also enjoy socializing with the students, she added.

“The clients get so much out of it,” Tharpe said. “They’re able to interact with other people on basically what they consider their turf. They’re comfortable here, and then when other people come in it’s like they’re welcoming them into their home.”

Social isolation among those with dementia is common, she said.

“They don’t want to go out and be in public because then people look at them funny or people act weird around them because they don’t know how to act,” she said. “When they’re here and the people come here, it’s different. They’re more at ease. They’re just relaxed.”

This project is part of the college’s emphasis on creating service-learning opportunities for its students, said Nuñez, an assistant professor of psychology at CCGA. This kind of experiential learning helps students better understand concepts they learn in class and apply them off campus, while benefiting the community partners who support these projects.

“In my cognitive psychology class, we cover the topic of memory, and it goes into four chapters in the textbook that we use,” Nuñez said. “It’s a very broad concept that goes into a lot of different details related to how memory works, the different stages of memory, how the brain processes memory and what happens when we make memory errors and what are they caused by.”

She designed her class so that students spend a great deal of time learning about and discussing memory, and then they apply what they learn by meeting the clients at Memory Matters and designing activities that will benefit the clients.

“They were able to learn how to deepen their knowledge on these concepts related to memory and then how to apply it, like by thinking of a real world solution where they can use this knowledge,” she said. “… And then they came back to the classroom and they worked together and created different activities to help, mainly memory enhancing techniques.”

The students presented their work last week at the college’s Service-Learning Symposium, where Memory Matters was given an Outstanding Community Partner award.

Everyone benefits from this kind of project, Nuñez added.

“It’s a really great way of taking the students out of the regular things they’re used to doing in the classroom and putting them in the community so they can actually interact with the people in the community and use the knowledge that they’re gaining,” she said.

To learn more about Memory Matters, visit memorymattersglynn.com.

Reprinted with the permission of The Brunswick News. Originally published in The Brunswick News.