A JOURNEY WITH DEMENTIA BRINGS THE TUDELA FAMILY CLOSER THAN EVER
For Alberto and Sonja Tudela, their three adult children, Marina, Patricia, and Alberto Luis, and their eight grandchildren, family has always been a top priority. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that when Sonja started exhibiting some worrisome cognitive symptoms over four years ago, the Tudela family unit naturally came together to support one another.
Within the next year, Marina and her family relocated to Houston from Puerto Rico and moved in with Alberto and Sonja, Alberto Luis and his family subsequently relocated from Florida, while Patricia made extended visits from Honduras. As Alberto reflects, “We have always been a close-knit family, but this situation has actually made us even closer.”
Alberto, who was born in Argentina and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, was an engineering student at the University of Houston in the early 1960s when he first met Sonja, a native Houstonian. After four years of dating, they married in September 1966 and moved to Venezuela, where they would remain for the next three decades growing their family. After Hugo Chavez’s rise to Venezuelan political power in the late ’90s, Alberto and Sonja moved to the U.S., eventually settling in Houston in 2006.
“Amazing Place has been nearly a miracle. We are really very thankful.”
In 2015, Marina and her siblings started to notice some uncharacteristic behavior from their mom. Initially, it came in the form of a lost important document, which was highly unusual given Sonja’s superb memory and administrative expertise. Then, Sonja began exhibiting difficulty finding the right words to communicate clearly. Marina admits wrestling with denial – “You never want to accept this is happening; you think it’s something minor and there’s always an excuse.”
As Sonja’s ability to speak continued to deteriorate, she was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a type of frontotemporal dementia. For the next two years, Alberto exhausted every medical option available to help his wife, but as Sonja’s condition continued to progress, Marina could see the emotional toll it was taking on her family. “It was overwhelming for all of us. We needed help.”
That’s when Alberto and family were referred to Amazing Place, which proved to be exactly what they needed. Upon her initial visit with her dad, Marina sensed there was something special about Amazing Place. “I saw a lot of people happy, smiling. Everybody was so receptive, so understanding.”
Soon, the family recognized how much Sonja was benefiting from her time at Amazing Place, so she began attending two days a week, then three. According to Marina, having her mom at Amazing Place has not only given her dad and her family the gift of respite, but also cherished peace of mind. “My dad was able to go to lunch with his friends again. I didn’t have to worry, and we were blessed. It was such a relief. And my dad would pick up mom and she would be happy.”
Not long after Sonja was enrolled in the Day Program, Marina and her family came to appreciate all the Amazing Place programs designed to help family caregivers through the daily challenges of their journey. One particularly helpful course was the Savvy Caregiver program. The family appreciated how the course helped them develop a more thorough understanding of dementia and gave them practical skills to manage dementia-specific behaviors at home. It also provided the type of comfort, encouragement, and camaraderie that comes with being around others facing a similar journey.
While the Tudela family continues adapting to the progression of Sonja’s condition, one thing is certain – they remain as connected now as they have always been. As Marina puts it, “the way Amazing Place helped us with all those programs…that’s what’s made all the difference because I know Mom is having a great time [participating in the Day Program], but we’re also getting help at the same time.” Alberto agrees, “Amazing Place, to us, has been nearly a miracle. We are really very thankful.”
DAY PROGRAM
2019 was a year of abundant growth for the Amazing Place Day Program as Day Program enrollments experienced a 68% increase from 2018. By the end of the year, the Day Program served an average of 60 participants a day, up from an average of 46 to start the year. As the year progressed, it was exciting to see more and more participants enjoying the benefits of our core curriculum, including all the opportunities for cognitive stimulation, creative expression, and personal fulfillment.
With the growth of our participant population, the Health Services clinic became busier than ever, prompting our team of registered nurses to increase their clinical coverage by 13 hours each week. This increased coverage allowed our Health Services team to continue providing quality service and individualized attention to all Day Program participants.
Similarly, even with the growing number of participants, our Culinary Services team was able to maintain the type of quality healthy food service that has become a hallmark of the Day Program. Our Participant Program team also developed several additional program offerings, including extra reminiscing groups and other opportunities for peer-to-peer support and encouragement. Many of these programs were made possible with the help of our dedicated volunteers.
Left: Participants enjoying the volunteer-led painting class.
DAY PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Day Program Director
Longtime Care Team Director Carol Cooper, who has been with Amazing Place for 10 years, was officially announced as the new Day Program Director on October 1, 2019.
Rienzi
Thanks to a grant from the Isla Carroll Turner Friendship Trust, Amazing Place was proud to partner with Rienzi, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) house museum for decorative arts, to provide culturally rich experiences for Day Program participants every other month. In addition to providing special private tours, Rienzi also hosted art classes involving several different types of creative techniques and mediums.
Health Services Manager
With Sally Davis assuming the role of Connections director, Logan Campbell, RN, BSN joined Amazing Place as Health Services manager. Logan, a recent graduate of the UTHealth Cizik School of Nursing and the University of Houston, participated in our Clinical/Professional Training program as a nursing student in the summer of 2017.
Interim Participant Program Manager
Participant Program Director Emile Unverzagt announced Casey Chelton as interim participant program manager. Before this role, Casey served as participant program coordinator for several years.
CONNECTIONS PROGRAM
“Personal connections are vital to making informed decisions, learning life skills, and fostering friendships.”[i] The Amazing Place Connections Program, internally developed to work in tandem with our Day Program, was successfully launched in 2019.
Sally Davis, former AP Health Services director, became the new Connections director, overseeing and implementing the many programs and initiatives developed to engage, support, train, and educate dementia caregivers, families, congregations, health/medical professionals, the community, and those interested in brain health. In this inaugural year, the Connections Program served 3,781 people in the Houston and West Houston/Katy area.
This promising outreach was accomplished through the program’s numerous offerings. These include Memory Café, Savvy Caregiver, Powerful Tools for Caregivers, Stress-Busting Program, Memory Training, Brain Boot Camp, Brain Health Matters Presentations, clinical/professional training, Faith Care Connection, support groups, counseling and referral services, and consulting. Through our dynamic Connections Program, we are empowering lives disrupted by dementia...one connection at a time.
For more information about our Connections Program, please contact us at connections@amazingplacehouston.org.
* [i] act.org/importance-connection
CONNECTIONS PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Savvy Caregiver
Since its inception in 2018, the Savvy Caregiver program has helped equip dementia caregivers with the necessary skills, understanding, and outlook to thrive in their challenging role. To date, Amazing Place has facilitated a total of 33 Savvy courses at various locations throughout Houston, including 12 sponsoring churches and two churches in Katy. In total, the Savvy Caregiver program has empowered the lives of close to 250 individual class participants. Participants often report a positive change in the trajectory of their caregiving journey as a result of taking the Savvy Caregiver Program, including decreased levels of distress and increased self-efficacy.
Faith Care Connection
Like the Savvy Caregiver Program, Faith Care Connection (FCC) has also flourished since its launch in 2018. Lead by a registered nurse, social worker, and physical therapist, the Faith Care Connection team has developed strong partnerships with 14 area churches to ensure congregants who are living at home and at risk for dementia have the resources and support they need. “Faith Care Connection has been an enormous help to me and to my family and to [my aunt] as we made an extremely difficult transition,” says the nephew of a Faith Care Connection participant. “When things were being lost, in some ways they were being regained. I’m very thankful to Faith Care Connection for having provided, if you will, a bridge through very troubled waters indeed.”
Brain Health Matters
Over the course of 2019, our suite of Brain Health Matters (BHM) presentations continued to serve families and members of the community by educating them about dementia and brain healthy lifestyles. In total, our BHM presentations reached a collective audience of over 2,000 individuals.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR UPDATE
As we reflect on 2019, in many ways, Amazing Place began hitting its stride toward ending the stigma of dementia. We continued to encourage brain healthy living and active and independent lifestyles for our Day Program participants as enrollment soared by 68% in 2019.
We vastly expanded our missional reach beyond our Day Program by officially launching our Connections Program, which takes valuable programs and services out into the community, reaching people where they live, work, and worship. And we purchased a 2-acre tract of land on a prime piece of property in the Katy area as we continue to raise funds for our first satellite location, Amazing Place West. It was a very busy year indeed, filled with growth, excitement, and opportunity. You will see the exciting impact of 2019 on the pages of this report.
The path Amazing Place began charting in 2019 to become more accessible, further reaching, and increasingly resilient continues to take shape. We are discovering new silver linings with respect to our ability to adapt, be resourceful, and remain flexible, especially given the uncertainty surrounding the global pandemic we face today.
All of us at Amazing Place are very grateful to have the support of so many in our community. Whether you support us with your time, talents, or treasure, we are blessed by your dedication and contribution to this special mission. With your continued help, we look forward to serving more individuals, families, and communities across Houston for years and years to come.
With gratitude,
FINANCIAL REPORT
It is difficult to express in words how grateful we are to be a part of a community that is so supportive of our mission and vision, a reality made so abundantly clear by our year-in-review for 2019. Following the launch of the silent phase of the Amazing Together Campaign in the fall of 2018, contributions to the Campaign continued to grow in 2019, accounting for almost half of our total revenue, which increased almost 73 percent from 2018. Much of our remaining revenue, which covers our operating and fundraising costs, came from our Day Program and generous contributions from individuals, foundations, and our sponsoring churches.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR WORK IN KATY/WEST HOUSTON
AP West Council of Congregations
We are thrilled to have a dynamic group of individuals, representing seven Katy area churches, supporting us on our Amazing Place West Council of Congregations. This group meets five times a year working to advance our mission in the Katy/West Houston area.
- Gaye Bautista (Church of the Holy Apostles)
- Schottsie Hill (Epiphany of the Lord)
- Rev. K Adams (Grand Lakes Presbyterian)
- Bob Binkowski (Kingsland Baptist)
- Pat Kerlin (St. Faustina Catholic)
- Larry Moore & Kelli Pappas, Chair (St. Peter’s United Methodist)
- Diane Walker (The Fellowship)
First Office in Katy
We have opened our first office in Katy at the HUB on 1st! It’s situated in a really neat collaborative work environment, which allows us a greater connection to the Katy community.
Left: The HUB on 1st
2019 LUNCHEON
The 2019 Amazing Place Luncheon, our only fundraiser of the year, was an unprecedented success because of the very generous contributions by our donors and guests. In our 23rd year of operation, the luncheon raised an extraordinary sum of more than $550,000!
The luncheon, chaired by the dynamic team of Cheri and Andy Fossler and Kyttie and Bentley Sanford, welcomed more than 440 guests at River Oaks Country Club to enjoy a delicious lunch and listen to an amazing presentation on promising new Alzheimer’s research by world renowned scientist Dr. Paul Cox.
After lunch, a benevolent “angel” donor offered a $50,000 match, which was met with great response by our guests resulting in the addition of $129,000 to our luncheon total. October 8, 2019, was a truly outstanding day for Amazing Place thanks to all our guests and donors. The funds raised at the luncheon allowed Amazing Place to continue providing vital services to those living with dementia, their caregivers and families, neighbors, church congregations, health professionals, and the communities of Greater Houston and the West Houston/Katy area.
Executive Director Tracey Brown summarized the event perfectly saying, “We are thrilled so many in our Houston community have given so generously to Amazing Place. With the support of our neighbors, friends, and our 15 sponsoring churches, we can be a beacon of hope through our Day Program and Connections Program for those whose lives have been disrupted by dementia.”
“a truly outstanding day for Amazing Place”
AMAZING SERVICE
Celebrating Susan Giles
After 10 years of devoted, meaningful service to Amazing Place, our very own Susan Giles has retired. We couldn’t be happier for her and wish Susan nothing but joy on her future journey! We celebrated Susan and her 10 years at Amazing Place with a lovely celebration at the home of Cynthia and Ben Guill. (Due to Susan’s tremendous impact in our community, we will be honoring her at our 2020 Amazing Place Luncheon.)
New Website
We began 2019 with the rollout of a brand-new mobile-optimized Amazing Place website. With the updates that were made, content related to our mission, vision, and initiatives is now more accessible than ever, with a seamless user experience across any device. The website has not only served as a central hub of information, but it has also played a pivotal role in the development and accessibility of our new Connections Program. We believe our website has established a solid foundation for serving a growing population facing dementia, and we look forward to making future refinements that enhance the user experience.
