CHARLIE’S PLACE

• By DEBRA LEMOINE
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 30, 2008 - Page: 1D - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Anne Record Stout holds a pink foam noodle in the air, ready to swat the orange balloon flying around the room.

She swings and misses. The balloon brushes her face instead. She laughs.

“Noodle ball,” as the game is called, is not exactly a sport, but one of the many activities planned for Stout and her fellow septuagenarians and octogenarians who hang out at Charlie’s Place on Thursdays.

Charlie’s Place is a respite center that Alzheimer’s Services of the Capital Area opened last October in its North Boulevard building.
The center offered a break to the caregivers of people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

The respite center has proven so popular in its first year that Alzheimer’s Services will add a third day, starting this Wednesday, said Nicole Colvin, Alzheimer’s Services’ events and public relations coordinator.

Charlie’s Place also was recognized earlier this month as the Day Center of the Year by the National Adult Day Services Association, Colvin said.

At first, the response to the respite center was slow, Colvin said. Caregivers were hesitant to leave their loved ones alone, and the clients themselves did not want their caregivers to go.

“It’s almost like dropping your child off at kindergarten for the first time,” Colvin said.

Eventually word got out about the service, and the allotted 15 slots for both days are filled.

“We’ve never had a waiting list,” Colvin said. “Now it’s getting to a point where we don’t want Tuesdays and Thursdays to get too full.”

In June, Alzheimer’s Services staffers and board members began planning for the additional day, Colvin said. Eventually, the respite center might be open all week, she said.

“A lot of people don’t want to let go,” Colvin said. “It’s very important (for caregivers) to take that break because it prolongs the time they stay in the home with you.”

Good for patient, caregiver
Elizabeth Anne Henderson has brought her mother, Anne Stout, to Charlie’s Place every Thursday since the center opened last year, the Baton Rouge resident said.