November 14, 2023

A Daughter’s Story: Navigating a Dementia Diagnosis

About Brookdale Senior Living

Brookdale Senior Living offers multiple care levels for seniors in more than 600 communities nationwide. Brookdale helps you find the right care plan for yourself or your loved one. With amenities such as transportation services, salons and private dining rooms and activities such as gardening, fitness classes and trivia nights Brookdale caters to a wide range of interests and needs.

Navigating a Dementia Diagnosis

A Daughter's Story

Navigating a Dementia Diagnosis

A Daughter's Story

November marks National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month.

Alzheimer’s and dementia can be challenging for everyone involved, and we want to help make this journey feel less daunting. At Brookdale Senior Living, you don’t have to go through this alone.

It was just a week before the COVID pandemic would change the world as we know it when Celia Naples and her family decided to move her mother to a Brookdale memory care community.

While it was a major adjustment to see her mother go from living on her own to needing care, Celia said it was the associates at Brookdale Lake Highlands who helped her navigate the tough times. Times that were even tougher due to the uncertainty at the onset of the pandemic.

“The staff here was just amazing through that whole process,” she said. “We did a lot of FaceTime. Shewanesh really made an effort to make sure we stayed in touch and that she saw familiar faces regularly. She is what got me through COVID with my mom being here.”

Shewanesh Gebrewahid, Clare Bridge Program Coordinator at Brookdale Lake Highlands in Dallas, helped Celia’s mother and many other residents to navigate and get through COVID-19.

With more than 15 years at Brookdale, she understands the passion and purpose behind our mission to build trust and care for our residents.

“I love my residents,” said Gebrewahid. “I just love them because I want them to have every day as a quality of day. We are here for the residents. We work together to make this successful.”

Since they entered the new reality of their mother’s dementia diagnosis, Celia and her family credit the team at Brookdale Lake Highlands for making a tremendous difference.

“Even though she can’t verbalize anymore, observing her with her caregivers, you can tell that they interact with her in a way that makes her comfortable,” she said. “I depend on her, {referring to Shewanesh} and I trust her. You can’t ask for more than that.”

If you or your family are in a similar situation, you can read more about our memory care communities here.

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