Brain health workshop begins in September

The Senior Resource Center is offering a Brain Health Workshop beginning Monday, Sept. 10. There is no cost for the workshop, but registration must be completed in advance. The first brain health workshop began in January and was successful.

The workshop is a unique opportunity for older adults. Similar to a personal trainer in the gym helping people reach physical health goals, the Brain Health Workshop is an eight-week program to help participants reach their brain health goals. This program uses the Brainwave-R system to introduce memory strategies and brain exercises for practice. These brain exercises are designed to improve:

• Visual processing —he brain’s ability to make sense of what it sees.  This does not have anything to do with how healthy one’s eyes are, but how well the brain processes the information it receives from the eyes.  In the Brain Health Workshop, we hope to improve ability to scan over visually presented information, focus on a desired image, recognize patterns, and manipulate pictures by rotating them in the mind.

• Information processing — the brain’s ability to make sense of multiple pieces of information presented, such as creating a solution to a problem, sequencing steps to complete a task, and processing information at faster rates. In the Brain Health Workshop, we hope to improve processing speeds of more complex information so participants can better make sense of the world around.

• Memory  — ability to store and recall information over a certain period of time.  In the Brain Health Workshop, we hope to improve participants’ ability to store information in long-term memory and to recall it more effectively when needed. We do this by teaching memory strategies and creating opportunities for to use them.

The Brain Health Workshop is designed to allow participants to complete activities specific to each of these three brain activities one day a week for eight weeks.  A pre-test and post-test session is available to those who are interested in tracking their progress. Only 12 slots are open for the program.  Should there be enough interest, a waiting list will begin for another session.   Those interested in attending are asked to call Yvonne Gold at 452-2370 to register.