On Saturday, Jessica, John, Micah, and I went to Seasons at La Jolla. Seasons at La Jolla is an assisted-living facility for elders that require Alzheimer’s/ Dementia-Related Care and is located approximately 6-7 miles away from UCSD. The reason my classmates and I chose to visit this assisted-living facility in the weekend is because we have been meaning to meet Barrette Patel, the CEO at Seasons, since Spring Break. Now that we have met Mr. Patel, his staff, and residents, we are quite pleased to have chosen to do our Healthy Aging Project (HAP) at Seasons.
After getting to know Mr. Patel at the personal and professional level, we discovered he is a pleasant person to work with, mainly because of his willingness to share his life lessons with us. On Saturday’s meeting, Mr. Patel primarily focused on the importance of sleep. According to Mr. Patel, high-achievers that get few hours of sleep each night are the ones that develop dementia in the long-run. Although this statement is heavily based on Mr. Patel’s observations (while working at Seasons), it has definitely caused me to question the literature, since research does show that a potential risk factor for dementia is lack of education, although many of the residents at Seasons, are highly accomplished individuals.
Overall, I’m really excited to see how my perspective on dementia will change as a result of my constant interactions with residents at Seasons. Hopefully, by the end of this quarter, my team and I can leave meaningful memories in the minds of these residents and their families.
After getting to know Mr. Patel at the personal and professional level, we discovered he is a pleasant person to work with, mainly because of his willingness to share his life lessons with us. On Saturday’s meeting, Mr. Patel primarily focused on the importance of sleep. According to Mr. Patel, high-achievers that get few hours of sleep each night are the ones that develop dementia in the long-run. Although this statement is heavily based on Mr. Patel’s observations (while working at Seasons), it has definitely caused me to question the literature, since research does show that a potential risk factor for dementia is lack of education, although many of the residents at Seasons, are highly accomplished individuals.
Overall, I’m really excited to see how my perspective on dementia will change as a result of my constant interactions with residents at Seasons. Hopefully, by the end of this quarter, my team and I can leave meaningful memories in the minds of these residents and their families.