Episcopal Retirement Services is dedicated to offering premier programs for memory support.

One such program is It’s Never 2 Late (IN2L), which is part of the comprehensive suite of Living Well Memory Support therapies we offer in our flagship Marjorie P. Lee and Deupree House retirement communities, in Cincinnati’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

“ERS is consistently on the lookout for new, fun, informative and beneficial programming and technology that will help serve our residents,” explained Emerson Stambaugh, our Executive Director of Hospitality.

“IN2L was one of those things that at the time when we found it, it was a newer program,” he said. “We started it about four years ago, and it’s been serving our residents well.”

Using digital technology to advance the quality of memory care

The IN2L cognitive therapy system is based on a large, easy-to- use touchscreen computer. Seniors in memory care don’t have to be particularly tech-savvy to use it — they can simply “touch” their way to find engaging educational, spiritual and personalized content appropriate to their individual ability levels.

It also allows them to connect with friends and family members further away, through email, photo and video chat programs. Family members can even add video and photos to the IN2L system, making it easy for their senior loved ones to stay in touch.

IN2L in action

One of the primary advantages of having a system like IN2L is that it can stimulate healthy socialization among dementia patients, who often withdraw as their symptoms progress.

Studies have shown that regular socialization is important for preserving memory function in cognitive disorder patients, so it’s critical for their well-being to get them out of their rooms and interacting with each other and with their caregivers.

To give you a better idea how IN2L can do that, check out this video about the system’s rollout at a memory care community, Summer House at Sunny View, in the San Francisco Bay area.

Since bringing the system online, one Sunny View caregiver said, “the energy of the whole area [in] Summer House has changed.”

“Residents who used to stay in their rooms now come out and specifically ask to do a puzzle. Some of them are doing the puzzles together,” she said.

“The largest change I’ve seen in the residents since we’ve been working with the IN2L is their engagement,” said another. “They’ll speak more, they’ll laugh more.”

Indeed, we know firsthand how IN2L can be a great conversation starter among our memory care residents. TV shows, recorded historical events and even old commercials are available for residents to view on the system.

“Residents seem to relate to those commercials,” Stambaugh said. “Watching a TV commercial might lead to us talking about toys they bought for their children for Christmas, and then we may wind up having a conversation about Christmas traditions and their families.”

The system’s travel site applications are also popular with ERS’s senior residents.

“We were doing a group session one day, and we got onto Google Earth and went to Galway, Ireland,” Stambaugh said.

“One of our residents was from Galway. We were on the street view, just kind of driving through Galway, when all of a sudden, she says, ‘That’s the church I was christened in!’ It was really important to us to be able to help make this connection,” he remembered with a smile.

IN2L is just one of the many memory care activities ERS offers.

If your senior loved one suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or age-associated memory loss, he or she may benefit from care offered in our premier suite of Living Well Memory Support therapies.

Need more information? Interested in arranging a tour, for your family and your senior relative, of our memory care communities at Deupree House or Marjorie P. Lee?

Contact ERS today. We’d love an opportunity to show you how we’re helping our memory care residents live well into the future.