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Thursday, February 22, 2018 • Vol. 133, No. 34 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1
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Dementia Friendlier Team to meet again, discuss starting a memory cafe ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
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Hailey Morey and a kangaroo mug for the camera at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane, Australia. “Super cool animals!” Morey wrote.
Around the world in 468 days OHS grad learns from globe-trotting adventure
ALEXANDER CRAMER
decided to cancel her ticket, Morey said she didn’t really know what to do next. “There was no plan for me anyHailey Morey had a decision to where,” Morey said. “I just decided make. She’d been telling friends for I wasn’t coming back, so what was I months that she wasn’t going to come going to do?” home when her study abroad program Unexpected lessons in Germany was over, but they didn’t She started thinking about what believe her: She still had the return half of her round-trip ticket, and she contacts from her past might be useful, and used the internet to reach out. was due home for Christmas. “I used to work for the YMCA in “I graduated on Dec. 16, my classmates went back, and I canceled my the Twin Cities,” Morey explained. ticket,” Morey told the Observer. “They directed me to someone in Nuremberg and I started volunteer“And that began everything.” For the 2013 OHS grad, that “every- ing for the YMCA in the Bavarian thing” was spending the next year liv- region.” Morey volunteered at a refugee ing out of a backpack and traveling to 18 countries, working her way across integration program at a time when Europe and all the way to India. And the issue was a hot topic in Germaas Morey made sure to note, it wasn’t ny. The New York Times estimated a huge backpacking pack, either, in Jan. 2017 that 890,000 refugees more like something to carry books to – many from the Syrian civil war – school. She had three pairs of pants, came to Germany in 2015, and anothand for the last six months, just one er 280,000 in 2016. On top of myriad pair of Chacos sandals for footwear. Turn to Travel/Page 5 After the fateful day when she Unified Newspaper Group
The Dementia Friendly Oregon team will discuss the possibility of starting a memory cafe when it meets at the end of the month. A memory cafe in Oregon would serve to buttress existing efforts at the senior center to support those who are affected by the disease – both those diagnosed and their caregivers. O ve r t h e p a s t y e a r, Stoughton and Cottage Grove have established memory cafes, and Dementia Friendly Oregon hopes to build upon the village’s successful designation as a memory-friendly community last July as they explore whether it would work here, as well. A memory cafe is a group meeting for those who have dementia and those who support them, usually once a month or so, long-time Oregon resident, registered nurse and geriatric health specialist Sue Richards told the Observer. The proposed cafe would work in conjunction with existing services at the senior center like their state-licensed Adult Day Program. Senior center direc tor Rachel Brickner, a member of the Dementia
Friendly Oregon team, said the program is “for seniors who are at risk for social isolation … (and) plays an important role in a dementia-friendly community.” Offered three mornings per week, the Adult Day Program provides a supportive, caring and safe atmosphere away from home, Brickner wrote in an email to the Observer. “The program provides respite opportunities for caregivers, as well as a chance for participants to experience a broader range of activities than they might at home, and to make connections with other people,” she wrote, noting that participants like it so much, they’ve dubbed it the C.L.U.B. – the Cheerful, Lively, United Bunch. The proposed cafe would share certain characteristics, like having a drink, snack and an activity, but mostly would be an overtly welcoming environment for those whose behavior is affected by dementia – a place where people won’t bat an eye if someone starts taking off his shirt, for example, or speaking out of turn. “There are a lot of people who are taking care of people who used to get out but can’t anymore,” Richards says. “(Because) Joe might blurt out something inappropriate with the dementia. The memory cafe itself provides a normalizing environment to
Turn to Dementia/Page 10
Inside Spring Your Family
Photo by Alexander Cramer
Hailey Morey with her trusty backpack at the Firefly Coffeehouse after her triumphant return to Oregon. The 2013 OHS grad went around the world in a (mom-estimated) 468 days, visiting 18 countries while volunteering with the YMCA and The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.
Observer highlights National FFA week Page 12
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