Image from The Church at Liberty Park
Pathways at Liberty Park is a program for people with memory loss and their caregivers at The Church at Liberty Park.
The Church at Liberty Park soon plans to start a new respite ministry to serve people with dementia and other memory loss disorders and their caregivers.
Starting Oct. 23, the Pathways at Liberty Park program will offer a place for people with dementia and other memory loss disorders to get together weekly on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for fellowship, recreation and an array of creative and engaging programs. It also is designed to give caregivers time to handle other matters or just to rest.
The program will be similar to respite ministries at places such as Canterbury United Methodist Church and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Mountain Brook and Asbury United Methodist Church in north Shelby County, said Leigh Simmons, who will be directing the ministry along with Diane Watkins.
“We didn’t have to reinvent the wheel,” Watkins said in a press release. “We believe we are able to provide an environment that has already been proven successful at other sites. We have a great schedule of enriching and engaging activities ready to go, and we cannot wait to meet and minister to our participants and their caregivers.”
This ministry is designed for people who can sit in group settings for a period of time, are able to feed themselves, and able to move around on their own. “This is not just for our own church members, but for others in the community who would enjoy these social and relational activities,” Simmons said.
Pathways at Liberty Park is part of a larger network of respite ministries adopting a volunteer-based model of care promoted by the Respite For All Foundation. Volunteers must attend a training session before beginning. This is a social program, and no medical training is involved.
The Church at Liberty Park plans to host a kickoff event at 11 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 16, with a presentation from Dr. Rita Jablonski from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Jablonski is a researcher, professor and clinician who specializes in neurology and memory and cognitive disorders.
Lunch will then be served for those who sign up in advance, followed by a presentation from Dr. Renee Harmon, who practiced medicine with her husband, Dr. Harvey Harmon, until an Alzheimer’s diagnosis forced his retirement. Harmon is the author of “Surfing the Waves of Alzheimer’s: Principles of Caregiving That Kept Me Upright.”
Anyone interested in the Sept. 16 kickoff event, including volunteers, should sign up by Sept. 12 at libertypark.org/pathways.
