One of the wonderful features of the new Rehabilitation Center at Cedar Village is that patients have the opportunity to practice "life skills," that is those every day skills that we need to function and live as independently as possible.  We have a bedroom so that folks can practice transferring in and out of bed or in and out of a chair. We have a fully equipped bathroom, with a tub shower, to allow patients to work with an occupational therapist and understand how best to manage in their own bathrooms at home.  We even have a washer and dryer which are also skills practice tools.
 
One of the favorite life skills practice areas is a fully equipped kitchen, called Sally's Place, that was dedicated in honor of our own Sally Korkin.  Sally's Place looks like a kitchen you might find in anyone's home.  It was deliberately designed to be a regular kitchen, not a special handicapped accessible kitchen because that what folks go home to and that's the setting that they will be working within.  On a regular basis, therapists use the kitchen area to help folks work on fine motor skills (cutting, peeling, chopping, mixing) as well as to find ways to function effectively when they return home.  About once a week there is a group cooking event and a number of patients get involved with some food preparation and cooking.  Last week, they made a "from scratch" lentil soup and yesterday's specialty was oatmeal cookies.  It is a wonderful way for people to incorporate therapy into every day activities, to engage with one another as they work on a project and to work together on something that has tangible-and delicious!-results.
 
Speaking of therapy, we just days away from the opening of the new Cedar Village Rehabilitation Center at the Mayerson JCC.  Located in a dedicated, and just remodeled, space on the ground floor of the JCC, the center will offer a full range of outpatient physical therapy services.  These services are available to people of all ages and you need not be a JCC member to receive your therapy at this location.  And we take most major insurances.  So if you have a need for outpatient physical therapy, you will have two choices of location-Cedar Village or the Cedar Village Center at the Mayerson JCC.  If you have a question about an ache or pain that you have, and you wonder if some PT could help, call for a free evaluation.  This project was made possible in part by the generous support of The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati.  The grand opening of this new center will be February 6, 2013. Watch for details on a day of fun events!
 
The Shalom Center for Elder Abuse Prevention celebrates one year in existence this month. We've been fortunate to get some publicity around this anniversary and we always hope that media attention will help to raise awareness on this important issue.  The current story was published by the Associated Press and will be running in a variety of places starting this weekend. The first was St. Augustine, Florida.  Here is the link if you would like to check it out:  http://staugustine.com/news/national-news/2013-01-24/aging-america-elder-abuse-use-shelters-rising.
 
Hope you are staying warm on these cold days!

All the best,  

 carol@cedarvillage.org
www.cedarvillage.org