By Ryan McGaughey on Feb 6, 2019 at 8:19 a.m.
WORTHINGTON — Craig Stewart not only likes reminiscing, but has a special interest in memory care.
As a result, Stewart — who resides at Ecumen Meadows in Worthington — has found a way to look back with others and lend a hand at the same time.
“I’ve worked up a program that’s a fun form of reminiscence therapy,” Stewart said. “I recognized that staff encourages residents to participate, and even create and innovate, and this blends together certain things we’ve always been doing.”
Stewart said he’s has done plentiful research on human memory, and explained that cognition scientists have identified what can be labeled as a “memory bump” that occurs between individuals’ mid-teens and early 20s.
“This is a very fertile area for memory,” Stewart said. “You take the average age of the residents of memory care; let’s say it’s 80 or 90. This would mean that images, songs, and events from the late 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s could be accessed. Some cognitive scientists believe … this slows dementia or Alzheimer’s.” ….