Healthy Brain Program Background and Project Design

As one response to implementing the Older Adults Services’ vision, mission and guiding principles, the concept of the Healthy Brain Initiative was created. The idea was developed with the input of The Aging Well Coalition, a broad-based community Leadership Council that has been engaged in community planning for an aging population in Lee County since 2002. The Leadership’s overall goal is “to create a community environment which supports maximum dependence for all older adults.” Their mission is “to improve the health and well-being of Lee County’s older citizens.”

From its inception, the Initiative was viewed as a model project for the community, the state of Florida and perhaps the nation. To support the model project concept, particular attention has been dedicated to documenting each action and to engaging an independent evaluator Scott Anstadt, Ph.D. in Social Work from Florida Gulf Coast University, to measure the project’s results. To date, approximately 4,000 residents of Lee County have taken the face-to-face class. Satisfaction surveys indicated that approximately 90 percent of the participants rated the class as a worthwhile investment of their time and as a valuable learning experience for memory enhancement.

At the conclusion of the four-week session, participants were “hungry” for more exercises and requested additional training for more brain health classes. Research into computerized programs indicated that affordable resources were available to conduct further classes using high-tech computer programs. A pilot program was created for the members of LMHS Wellness Programs—approximately 30 members enrolled in each of the centers. All were required to take the four-week course as an introductory class into understanding brain health and learning basic techniques and strategies for remembering names, numbers, learning new words etc. At the conclusion of the course, each member agreed to enroll and use special computer programs: Dakim, Nintendo Brain Age, and Cognifit. These programs are tools designed to provide brain fitness exercises to promote brain and cognitive fitness on an individual basis.

During a recent eight-week period, members practiced exercises twice a week on the Dakim and Cognifit at the SHARE Club Computer Learning Center at Cape Coral Hospital. The feedback from this group indicated that they found the computerized programs were not only challenging and lots of fun, but also very effective for brain health. 

Therefore, another component has been added to the HBI with Memory Spas at the North Fort Myers SHARE Club Plus located at, 5170 Orange Grove Blvd., North Fort Myers. For more information or to sign up please call 239-424-3758.

So the Healthy Brain Initiative has the following: The Memory Camps, which is the two-hour, four-week course developed by Center on Aging at UCLA and Memory Spas, where participants follow individualized computer programs is called Dakim Brain Fitness Program.