Yom Kippur is one of the most honored holidays in the Jewish calendar. People who suffer from dementia usually have a hard time finding the ability to celebrate the esteemed holiday. This need not be a problem. In our living community, there are many amenities offered to aid in assisted living to ensure that all our members are satisfied. This includes providing service for those who need assisted living services. If you have a loved one suffering from dementia, we can assist in preparing a dementia-friendly plan for the special event. Some of the issues you have to consider when planning such an event include:
A Prudently Short Dementia-Friendly Service
Attending a dementia-friendly service can help in allowing an individual to meet with other members of the same community, giving them a sense of satisfaction and happiness. It also makes it possible to celebrate Yom Kippur together, which is the main point of the celebration. To ensure that your love one does not lose out on anything, you can organize a service plan that is optimized for people suffering from dementia. This will involve it having only the essential elements required in Yom Kippur. They will find it easier to remember common short liturgies and music, making them feel like part of the entire celebration. Rather than the service lasting 2 or 3 hours as is the norm, the shortened version will last around 45 minutes and is ideal for people living with dementia. It allows them to focus, memorize important elements of Yom Kippur and to commit the event into memory as well. They are likely to not forget such a service for a long time.
Keeping a Small Gathering
People living with dementia will more appreciate it when surrounded by people familiar to them, rather than large groups comprising people they may not remember. When planning for this type of Yom Kippur service, keeping the gathering small will make it more intimate and memorable for the loved one. It may need one to carefully pick who to attend the service. Smaller, intimate gatherings are also warmer for everybody else, since they are less formal and have a loving, friendly atmosphere.
Organizing the Ideal Yom Kippur Service
Organizing such a service involves many factors. These include getting a Rabbi who will understand the needs of the individual, inviting close friends, colleagues and relatives of the loved one and hosting the event in a familiar environment such as the church they traditionally worshipped at. Keeping tabs of all these details can be overwhelming even when distributed among several people. A good way to ensure that it gets done properly is by using our Concierge services. If your loved one is within our community, we can make all the above arrangements and more, including transport to and from the synagogue. This leaves you with only thinking about the elements needed in the service, and then communicating them to us for execution.