Center For Advanced Memory Care Ribbon Cutting

By Miranda Reale

RHINEBECK – At a Kingston rally held in response to the recent report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recommending the closing of the Castle Point VA Medical Center, State Senator Michelle Hinchey spoke to the lack of medical resources in the Hudson Valley last month. “Our upstate communities suffer disproportionately from limited access to healthcare, and this federal proposal to remove the Hudson Valley’s closest in-patient VA facility would drive us further into a healthcare desert,” Senator Hinchey said.

Since responding to Covid-19, facilities around the Hudson Valley have exhausted resources and healthcare workers that were already scarce; but ArchCare Center for Neurodegenerative Care in Rhinebeck pushes against the idea of a healthcare desert here in the Hudson Valley, and opened up a new center for memory care.

ArchCare Program Director Michelle Feller explained that over the course of the pandemic, many families were forced to become full time caretakers. The new Center for Advanced Memory Care has been a goal of hers for years now. “There is such a need in the community for this unit and we took this opportunity to develop a different approach,” she said. Building on its long history of stepping in to serve the community’s unmet healthcare needs, the Center for Advanced Memory Care offers a specialized approach to healthcare, implementing a Montessori Inspired lifestyle. To treat Alzheimer’s disease and related neurological diseases, the system works to play to residents’ strengths while establishing a sense of community. By appointing each individual with responsibilities like watering flowers or tidying like they would have to do at home, the patient becomes an important and independent part of their environment.

The opening of the Center intends to not only provide additional beds for local families, but to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other neurological diseases that require specialized care and resources necessary for optimizing quality of life. At the ribbon cutting ceremony last Wednesday, State Senator Sue Serino awarded a Certificate of Recognition to the Center, highlighting its mission and spoke to the importance of the patients cared for there. “Seniors have really built our communities for what they are today, so it’s important they receive the comfort and dignity they deserve,” she said.

Archbishop of New York Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan was also in attendance.

During Mass prior to the ribbon cutting, he reflected on his own experiences with healthcare facilities and drew distinctions between the care offered at the ArchCare Center and other home care facilities, speaking of the “temptation to warehouse.” As healthcare workers and facilities faced the most strain of resources during the worst of the pandemic, treatment has been suffering. “That became particularly evident to our nation during Covid-19, and in fact, our entire nation is undergoing an examination of conscience about whether we care as tenderly and professionally as we should about those in nursing homes and care facilities. Whether we treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve– ArchCare does, it does it brilliantly and it should be a model,” he said.

Bringing a patient-centric approach to the new Center for Advanced Memory Care at ArchCare at Ferncliff intends to alleviate the profound effect that Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions felt by local families.