December 2013 | Health Matters
YourObserver.com 5
FEEL
The Anchin Pavilion of the Kobernick House in Sarasota has unveiled a multi-sensory room — a playpen for the elderly meant to revive activity.
Photos by Josh Siegel
Pearl Goodman’s mood changes immediately upon entering the multi-sensory room. She reaches out to touch strands of fiber-optic tails that trigger her tactile senses.
Pearl Goodman had barely spoken in weeks. But when she was wheeled into the new multi-sensory room at Anchin Pavilion, on the campus of Kobernick-AnchinBenderson, a senior living community, Goodman began extending invites to her 95th birthday party. Goodman twisted her torso to look at the colorful LED lights above and around her. She reached both arms forward to touch strands of fiber-optic tails meant to trigger her tactile senses. “It’s beautiful,” said Goodman, who suffers from dementia. “She might not do that again this week,” said Elyse Gordon, the director of rehab for Kobernick-Anchin-Benderson. Last month, Kobernick unveiled the multi-sensory room, designed to soothe anxiety and lift depression by stimulating the senses. April Moschini, the activity director for Kobernick, conducted research that shows the room can lift moods, improve sleep and trigger memories for adults with dementia and other cognitive dysfunction. The science behind the room — the first of its kind in the area — is based on therapy developed in the Netherlands in the 1970s for children with disabilities. Darlene Arbeit, Kobernick’s CEO, learned about the therapy — called Snoezelen — in an article. After two years of research, Moschini learned the same science could be applied to the elderly — and to anyone. The room is open to the public by appointment. Medicare covers the cost of therapy.
DID YOU KNOW? Projected lights change “Everyone can a sense of the color of the walls in benefit,” Moschini balance), the multi-sensory room. said. “We all have rather than sensory systems. a recliner Colors heavily influence But for our residents with soft a person’s mood. here, a lot live sedpillows. entary lifestyles. They Colored light need help eating, walking is projected onto and going to the bathroom. This the walls. Blue calms. Red alerts. therapy triggers the brain and A person can pick the color of the maybe wakens a memory to room himself. relearn those skills.” Staff plans to measure the It took a year to buy the therapies’ effects on residents various toys and equipment — by comparing each behavior gooey sand that doesn’t a make before and after therapy, includmess, squishy balls, blocks with ing: how many times a resident different textures, lava lamps, “calls out,” or abruptly yells, a television that shows nature during a day; the percentage of clips and weighted blankets that a meal consumed; and the time give a sense of security. between taking medication. Staff members gutted a former One goal is to decrease resistorage room and transformed it dents’ dependence on mediinto a colorful playroom. cine. Grants funded the project. Gordon and Moschini are Each person who uses the training five staff members to room — always in the company administer the screening, create of a therapist — receives a sena treatment plan and measure sory diet, or personal screening, its effects. based on his or her needs. For Goodman, the results Some may prefer the scent were not difficult to decipher. of lavender to cedar. Others As she was wheeled away may gravitate toward a swing (a to her first-floor room in the device that strengthens the vesmemory unit, she sang a song tibular system, which provides from her childhood.
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BY JOSH SIEGEL | STAFF WRITER