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Guided by goodness, loyalty, faith and fun
Desert Peaks Leadership Team 575-523-0300 Desertpeaksal.com
Tami McFarland, Wellness Director Justin Telles, Business Services Director Peter Frias, Maintenance Services Director Gloria Chavez, Dining Services Director Angelica Murphy, Life Enrichment Director Marrisa Ramirez, Memory Care Coordinator
Vol. 1 Issue 12 February 2015
We are happy to inform you that as of November 2014 our Community is supported by new ownership and a new name! Cottonbloom Assisted Living & Memory Care is now Desert Peaks Assisted Living & Memory Care. We have the same wonderful team with huge hearts and love for the residents they are honored to serve.
The new ownership is CSL – Las Cruces, LLC, which will do business as Desert Peaks Assisted Living & Memory Care. The community is now being managed by Compass Senior Living, a privately held company specializing in the management and operations of Assisted Living, Alzheimer’s care, and Independent Retirement communities. They are based in Eugene Oregon. The owners of Compass Senior Living have an excellent track record of building teams within elder-care communities where they live their mission, guided by goodness, loyalty, faith, and fun. To learn more about Compass Senior Living, go to www.compass-living.com Below are Leadership team members at Desert Peaks. You may recognize some of the faces if you were here when we were named Cottonbloom. Still serving and caring for the team and residents. Kiko Lopez, Transportation Director Justin Telles Business Services Director 18 years of service 10 years of service Tami McFarland, Wellness Director Pete Frias, Maintenance Director 9 years of Service 7 years of Service
Thank you for your years of service! We appreciate you!
Life Enrichment
Above, camp fire and S’Mores on a sunny winter day in January
Poker with Kiko gets pretty serious!
The best things about living at Desert Peaks are the relationships we develop with one another. This is truly a family, and a place to call
home.
Life Enrichment at Desert Peaks
Angelica Murphy leads our Life Enrichment Programing. Email or call Angelica for a copy of the Life Enrichment Calendar. [email protected]
In January we had an ice cream social and entertainment by the “Las Cruces Ukes”. Thank you!
“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
Marcel Proust
Music Makes Memories at Desert Peaks
We are thrilled with the positive
results of our Music Makes
Memories project. As we all know
from hearing that song associated
with a first love or leaving home for
good; music is profoundly linked to
personal memories. In fact our
brains are hard-wired to connect
music with long-term memory. Beloved music often calms chaotic brain
activity and enables the listener to focus on the present moment and regain a
connection to others
New research in the last 3 years has found that one of the last parts of the
brain that is affected by dementia is the limbic brain. This is below the neo-
cortex where speaking, thinking, and reasoning occur. In the limbic brain
there is no language, but there is emotion, intuition, and music!
In our Music Makes Memories programming, we provide head phones and an
MP3 player or iPod with playlists of songs individualized for each person.
Families are excited about how loved ones are more engaged in
conversation, and in a better mood. We find that those living with dementia
tend to verbalize and sing more after listening to music that is individually
chosen for them.
One of the more positive results we’re seeing is a reduction in the need for
psychotropic medication. Music soothes the residents to the point where
they may not need all the medications that they needed prior to being
introduced to the iPod project.
If music is such an important aspect of people’s lives from the time they are
born, why is it that it doesn’t really occur to us, as a society, to provide
people with music when they can no longer do what is necessary to provide it
for themselves? Why indeed!
Three years in the making, the film “Alive Inside” was just released. It won the
Sundance award and is only $14 on www.amazon.com. It is also streaming on
Netflix. We are using this film as part of our Memory Care training and
program. If you love someone living with dementia, this is a must see! Learn
more about the benefits of this programming at www.memoryandmusic.org .
Memory Care at Desert Peaks
Marissa Ramirez, Memory Care Coordinator
Marissa has worked at Desert Peaks for six (6) years. Four (4) years have been in Memory Care. Recently promoted to Memory Care Coordinator, she is interested in furthering her education in dementia care and particularly holistic approaches. Marissa will share her knowledge and experience with the care team. Her background includes three (3) years of in-home elder care and she also currently cares for her grandfather at home. Marissa says, “I enjoy my life just the way it is. My work is important to me. I love being able to make the residents feel at home – they are my second family.”
Purchase this amazing film on Amazon.com and also streaming on Netflix.
