One of the regional branches of the Panhellenic Federation of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders, Alzheimer Larissa Greece, was pleased, in April, to be approaching Easter in the company of the residents of the local Municipal Elderly Care Home.
Traditionally, Easter is preceded by an extended period of feasting, while people are engaged in religious activities. During the final week, people are getting busy to prepare for Easter festivities, especially the Easter feast. Unfortunately, due to health and safety reasons, residents are not easily able to follow the tradition, and it is quite common for them to feel excluded and isolated. Alzheimer Larissa Greece decided, therefore, to introduce several activities to help the care home residents embrace the spirit of the feast days.
Eleni Kamboura-Nifli and Nafsika Kiritsi started with a narrative of the Easter story. Every week, residents were welcome to add their memories, complete quizzes and practice rituals. They were also encouraged to do crafting. These classes are always open to all residents, but normally, there are only a few who decide to stay. The staff were pleasantly surprised that more and more seemed to be motivated to participate in these session, which reached the highest record of participation, as well as the record number of men participating. The participants made twine Easter eggs - which they kept to decorate their rooms - and were given help adorning Paschal candles.
They were also enthusiastic about communicating their wishes to the public, through the medium of drawing, or by recording personal messages. Artemissia-Phoebe Nifli did some editing, to bring the drawing and messaging together, and then Alzheimer Larissa Greece sent the result out via e-mail, as the association’s official Easter greeting card. The greetings card was also shared on the association’s Instagram account.
