Tovertafel may sound like a mouthful, but this innovative tool for residents with dementia is a game changer when it comes to engagement and fun. Brandi Blizzard joins us on location at Arbor Terrace Highland Park, to talk about this one-of-a-kind technology specifically designed for those living with dementia. The "Magic Table", projects fun games onto a surface and allows residents to engage with the animations and each other.
Video Transcript
Hello, everybody. Welcome into Senior Living Live. My name is Melissa. Thank you so much for being with us, and you can see you are with us.
Us on the road in Chicago, Illinois at one of our beautiful Arbor communities, Arbor Terrace at Highland Park, It is wonderful, and we're going to talk to you about a new piece of technology that we are utilizing at this particular community. And a few other Arbor communities as well, it is called the Tovertafel. It is a little bit of a mouthful, but it certainly packs a punch in terms of engagement for our memory care residents and here to help me talk a little bit more about it is Brandy Blizzard. Brandy, thanks for being with us.
Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. This is a wonderful Wonderful piece of technology, and we really have you to thank for bringing it to the ARBER Company.
So before we get into that, can we talk a little bit about you and background and what you do for Arbor? Yeah. Well, thank you so much. So again, I'm Brandy Blizzard, and I serve as our vice president of engagement, at Arbor and just celebrated twenty one years.
With the company. And so my role specifically is each day I get to support our engagement directors and engagement staff and all of our communities with helping them plan and provide, programming, engagement programming that takes place in all of our communities and supporting our teams and community of that. So what is it about Arbor and engagement that that makes Arbor special? And it really kind of is engagement brings everything together.
Right? So why do we have engagement? Why is it so important for our seniors? Well, so that's a great question.
Engagement is so important in our communities because it's really kind of the life in the central hub of what people are gonna be doing and spending their time doing. It's how it's and it's so unique for me or for you so each individual, you know, person of how they want to to write this this next chapter what's important to them and and how they wanna spend their time in doing things. And so I think for us, we love that that we get to provide and plan those things and those opportunities and experience for people in our communities. Yeah. We'll enter the tober tappel, which is something we've implemented as part of an engagement, piece. Just one piece of that puzzle, if you will, and it is specific for memory care residents. Brandy, what is it?
Yeah. So I'd love to tell you a little bit about October and how it came to Arbor.
And so Tover is this amazing technology that is it it it's connected from a device that hangs from the ceiling and it projects down onto a table. So it it projects light images and it's full of all of this game play. So it's Dutch word is the magic table, and it invites people to the table to play games. It's loaded with all kind of different content, and it really promotes physical and cognitive and social connection among residents. And so when we first met this company, which, you know, I again, I say one of the things that at Arbor, we really pride ourselves on with engagement is really being innovative and bringing technology and resources to our communities to utilize. And we definitely saw this, piece of technology as as a great tool for us to bring into our our memory care neighborhoods to serve our residents, that have dementia and cognitive, related diseases. And so We met with the company last year, and we're really just kinda blown away by what we saw.
And we decided to do a pilot in five of our communities. And the outcomes that we were having with just residents and staff and families was amazing. And so this year, we set it on a mission. To bring Tover into more and more of our communities.
And by the end of twenty twenty three, we plan to have the Tovertafel table in twenty of the Arbor company community memory cares. That's fantastic. So so as you're talking about it, let's dive into the visuals. Let's set the scene.
Somebody's leftover one of our residents. What are they doing? What are our staff members doing at the same time? Yes.
And so Tover is loaded again with games as I would say. And it's really built out over five different levels of gameplay. And one of the things that really drew me to to loving this product is because I felt like it really aligns with our philosophy of our gym levels. And just for those of you who may be hearing the gym level, like, what's gym levels?
Is that is a way that we describe the dementia journey.
We talk about, the different stages of dementia by using that gym level language and talking about you know, how a person can shine, really no matter what part of that journey they're on, if they're given the right setting, and the right care, and the right engagement, And so those those levels in the game play kinda match those gym levels for us. So whenever you start on the lower levels, you're gonna see just kind of some sensory play, like, where I'm just interacting with different items. It might be leaves wrestling around or fish swimming in an aquarium And so I'm really just kind of being social with those around me and and sensory.
And as those levels go up to three, four, and five, They become a little bit more challenged. They become more goal oriented, and they increase in their difficulty level. And so that really aligns with some of our our levels that are that are higher on our cognitive levels for residents. And so we really love that we're able to match, you know, the content that's in, in the Tover gameplay, with where our residents are on their journey with dementia.
And there's something for everyone. And so typically as you come to the, you know, neighborhood, you'll see people gathered around the table. It can be used, one on one with a caregiver, or a family member and one person, or up to six or seven people gathered around. And so the games and all are designed for group play or for individual play, and it's all sensory based.
So as you're moving your hands around or any kind of tactile props, we have some tactile props that you'll get to see in some of the video footage as you're watching some of the residents and families and staff play together.
And then it it's it's detecting all of that movement and, again, just promoting some social connection and physical activity and and in cognition as well. So Yeah. It sounds awesome. And and, I mean, you know, obviously, you could see the video, and so we're we're hoping that it sort of paints a really good picture of what this is.
It's it's it's really one of those, you gotta experience it for yourself to really appreciate it. Right? Yes. Absolutely.
Yeah. And so as we're we're describing it, you, as you said, it was kind of a soft launch in a few communities, and now you're expanding it to twenty communities. Yeah. So the reviews must be there.
What is some of the feet? What what are some of the, types of feedback you're receiving from, not just the residents, but family members as well. Absolutely. So much positive feedback from from staff and and residents that we see, you know, their responses and reactions, to to the games as well.
But Certainly, it's so easy to use. That's one of the things we love about it. Like, if you go into any of our communities, you might see the Tovertafel on. It's it's easy to utilize by families, by staff, and so it it's a place to gather.
Just, you know, grab the remote, click it on, and choose some different games, that you can play with. And so I think for, you know, our staff, they love engaging with our residents as well, and it's given some purpose, for them to gather on the table and to sit and get connected outside doing other tasks, things with them. And same thing for our families. Our families love that it can be a purposeful visit, like Sometimes, you know, you may be feeling a little anxious about, well, what am I gonna join my visit?
What what are, you know, my my myself and my loved one gonna do or talk about and and Tover brings that together. Even even if there's not even verbal communication or talking that's going on, just the smiles and the interactions of doing something and Another thing we really have seen with families and that they love is just the intergenerational play that it brings is, you know, bringing the grandkids to all come sit around the table, and and just have that opportunity to engage.
We've heard story after story.
Our evening time care staff have shared great stories with us about residents who may be experiencing some late afternoon anxiety and just being able to come and bring them to Tovertafel. And one of our communities, our care staff shares with us that there's a resident that she plays, the table with just about every evening. Before they go to bed. And she said it's just the right tool to just get get her settled down and and ready to go to bed at in the evening.
So it's kinda become a part of their evening routine each night too. So, again, super easy to utilize and so many families and staff are are engaging interacting with residents with you'll see how much fun, the residents are having as you're watching some of the video clips of them playing, and sometimes it can get very competitive. Is there some competitive fun games in there too with some, soccer and, one of one of my personal favorite games is whack a mole, So, you know, it's sort of a childhood favorite for some of us too. It helps us reminisce.
And we've, again, as, Susan had shared earlier, you know, we, we residents who are are verbally communicating with staff and loved ones who haven't before or even with their other, other residents. And another thing that we really see that Tover has brought to us is is sometimes it can be a lot more challenging and harder to engage some of our some of our residents who are on that more end spectrum of the journey, and we have really seen this be a tool that really engages them and brings some quality of life and connect to peers and to staff and family through through the game play. Yeah.
It's it's sort of a a lifeline, right? So as we we talk about someone who's been diagnosed with dementia, there's so many different journeys, like so many different stages of that journey, as you mentioned with a gym level. And with this with this as well, it it meets everybody at some point where they happen to be on the journey, which is why it's so fantastic. So, if somebody's watching this now, they're caregiver, and they're saying, you know what, I'm to the point where I need a little additional help.
And moving my loved one to community like this, where my loved one can get that additional help and then perhaps even thrive within this disease.
What would be some of the first step would tell them to take. Yeah. I would definitely encourage you to, you know, go go to the Arbor Company website and and look for a community that might be near you, or near where your loved one might be, and, you know, reach out as that as a first step, you know, reach out to our community so that we can get to know you and your loved one and maybe what specific needs you are, you may have so that we can get you connected, you know, to to what our community specifically might can meet for your loved one. Yeah. That's a great answer. And again, the website www.ArborCompany.com. a r b o r is how you spell Arbor. Brandy, thank you so much for being here and for telling us about this new wonderful technology that we're gonna see in more and more and more arbor communities.
Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. Thank you. Now if you enjoyed this interview with Brandy, you wanna find out more about the Tovertafel.
As she mentioned, we did do it another interview with Susan Robbins, who was our expert on everything dementia related. Head on over to our website for all those videos. It's www.SeniorLivingLive.com. All of our videos are all about senior living.
And the best part guys, they are all free. Thank you so much for being a part of senior living live. Have a great day, everybody.
