Three Questions for Kim Korge
Kim Korge is the Memory Support Coordinator at Cross Keys Village. We recently sat down with her and asked her about ongoing memory care and caregiver support programs that benefit our villagers and neighbors from outside our walls.
Kim, we are catching you the day after your team hosted the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s National Memory Screening Program for the first time since 2019. How did it go?
The screening was well attended, with 35 households participating – some from the village and some from the neighboring communities. What impressed me this time is that most participants asked for the challenging version of the test (there is a more basic, “easier” option). This choice shows me how serious, how aware people have become about cognitive functions. Of course, such a screening isn’t a diagnosis. It gives you a baseline to measure your progress, and I encourage participants to share this baseline with their health care provider. It is also worth sharing that more than two thirds of the individuals undergoing the test show no sign of significant memory impairment.
Another program you just finished is the Alzheimer’s Association Early Stage Support Group. This is an eight-week training that you and Resident Support Specialist Christina Summers offer twice a year. How is this series keeping its momentum?
Cross Keys Village started offering this valuable resource way back in 2016, originally in partnership with the Adams County Office for Aging. We used to hold the sessions off-site, alternating between Hanover and Gettysburg locations, but now we use the Encore Room in Harmony Ridge, which is centrally located and perfect for the session’s format: One hour with everyone together, followed by one hour during which I moderate the group of people living with dementia while Christina, a Social Worker by training, moderates the caregivers’ group. The series is informative, but more importantly it enables people to realize they aren’t alone in this struggle, and it offers a platform for friendships with others who are going through the same challenges. We will continue offering it twice a year. Let me add that “graduates” from this group are invited to meet socially once a month – usually for breakfast – after the series is over.
What is the first thing you would you like people to know about resources like screenings or support groups, and about caregiver education in general?
The period during which an individual, a couple or a household worries about signs of neurocognitive decline is especially stressful because it can spread over months, even years. When you run a temperature, when you cough, when you experience pain for a few days… you know it’s time to go to an urgent care clinic. However, when your spouse’s cognitive abilities, or your own, start changing slowly but noticeably, you may be unaware that there are options out there. I encourage people with an early concern about dementia to start educating themselves, and to find opportunities to make connections. I am truly honored to work in a position where I can educate villagers at Cross Keys and neighbors in the greater community. It is my soapbox, my crusade.