Inspirations was founded to bring Purpose, Joy, and Laughter to older adults with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. This mission was conceived by our founders, Ben Slabaugh and Kacey Troyer as they toured and consulted memory care communities across the country. They were frequently confronted with bland, lackluster memory care programs. With this in mind, they began to design a new kind of Memory Care focused on bringing residents New Purpose and New Joy.

The core value we’re focusing on today is Purpose. What does it mean for Inspirations to bring purpose to the lives of our residents? When we think of purpose, it often takes on grandiose forms. “What is my purpose in life” is the question most of us ask when we are beginning to create our life trajectories. We think of saving lives, inventing new solutions to problems, bringing new life into the world, ect. While these sorts of pieces do play a role in our purpose, when we break down our day to day actions, what actually ends up getting us out of bed in the morning tends to be the mundane. It tends to be the fact that you are part of a household and you know the dishes are piled up and need to be washed. Or it’s meeting up with your mother and sister for lunch at your favorite spot that afternoon. Maybe you are excited about starting to crochet a new hat after that sweater took you forever to get done. Perhaps you have a sleeping baby that you can’t wait to make smile. Yes, the big moments have a special place of importance. But our purpose tends to be found in the surface level day to day liturgy of our lives.

When we think of our residents, giving them purpose does not necessarily mean that we are going to send them back to college. It does mean that we are going to infuse their day with those little moments of purpose and meaning that they have had their whole lives. Some of our residents received great joy from making their family meals and enjoying them around a table. For these residents, we’re going to ask for their help to set the table for our meals. Another resident may have enjoyed helping his wife with the yard work. We can take him outside and ask for his help to replace a gate hinge or fence post in our courtyards. Many residents may have planned events at church and loved seeing them come to fruition. They can help us plan and decorate for our Christmas Party! Other residents may lack the cognitive or physical ability to do these things, but they were very social and loved talking to friends so we take time to sit down with coffee and chat with them each day.

Giving our residents purpose also overlaps with preserving their personhood. By giving our residents as much choice as possible in their care, diet, outfit choice, and routine we are able to preserve their dignity and purpose. Something like choosing which shirt you want to wear in the morning may not seem like a big deal, but when that choice is taken away along with whether you would like to shower today, what time you want to eat breakfast, and what to eat for a snack, suddenly it feels like you have no say at all! Think about the amount of choices you make in a day and the sense of purpose they bring you. This is why we give our residents as much autonomy over those choices as possible. 

While crafts and bingo are great, residents are not looking to be entertained by them all day! They are trying to discover what they have to offer their community and context right now. By not letting them participate in community life, we take away a core part of their identity as friends, mothers, husbands, and coworkers. Finding New Purpose is one of the core distinctives that Inspirations aims to do, day in and day out!