Archive for August, 2024

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Brain Health…What Is It and How to Maintain It

Wednesday, August 21st, 2024

 

To open our “Optimizing Brain Health” program, Dr Kathleen Fuchs of the UVA Memory and Aging Care Clinic (MACC) shared definitions, including cognitive changes in normal aging: slowed information processing, reduced mental flexibility, slowed learning, mild inefficiency in retrieval and words/names. Plasticity offers hope for older brains…it is new brain connections in response to life experiences.  New thoughts and skills carve out new memory pathways.  Repetition and practice strengthen these pathways. Animal studies show improved cognitive performance with:  1) enriched environment; 2) exercise; and 3) increased social interaction.

Cognitive reserve provides persons with higher lifetime intellectual enrichment the ability to withstand neurological disease progression without suffering cognitive impairment or dementia. Education (early and lifelong learning), cognitively challenging work, cognitive leisure activities, social activities and aerobic exercise are contributors to Cognitive Reserve.

#1 brain health activity:  exercise. Exercise 3-4 times per week.  Build up to 30 minutes. Increase your heart rate.  Be sure to check with your doctor before starting, if you don’t currently exercise.  Walking and talking double benefit.

Follow a Mediterranean diet.  Watch sleep quantity/quality.  Check hearing.  Monitor your mood.  Seek socialization.

IF interested in participating in research, contact Colleen Webber, UVA Memory Disorders Division, 243-5898 phone.

The Center’s Executive Director Melanie Benjamin shared literally hundreds of ways to improve plasticity and cognitive reserve at The Center, including exercise/fitness, painting/art, Spanish/Italian/French,  crocheting,  gardening, cooking, quilting, dancing, support groups (Parkinson’s, Womens, Cancer, Mental Health, ADHD, Grief, Retirement, Aging in Place, etc.), education (Pride Series, DEI Series, Brain Health, Cell Phone tutorial, Architecture, Good Life series, Funerals, Medicare, Vietnam, WWII, Money, Navigating Senior Living Options and more), luncheons, music performances, movies, documentaries, beer and bingo, book clubs, health services (flu clinic) AND MORE !!

Maintain your brain….you have the power.

*****

Following the program, the SSV held a reception welcoming everyone back to The Center at Belvedere:

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SSV Future Programs

Friday, August 2nd, 2024

The public is welcome to our meetings. Beginning August 14, 2024, the meetings will take place at The Center at Belvedere, 540 Belvedere Boulevard , Charlottesville, VA 22901, the second Wednesday of the month from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. There is no charge, although we suggest you join our group which has been in existence for 25 years. The membership dues are only $25 per year and can be paid online on the ‘Join SSV’ page. Your dues will help us continue to deliver top-quality presentations. If you have questions, please email info@seniorstatesmen.org. Click the tab above to see samples of our newsletter.

 

Wednesday, June 11, 2025,  2:30 p.m

 

Combating Gun Violence in Our Community

Join us for an informative panel discussion on:
1) What is your agency doing now to combat gun violence?
2) What do you want your agency to do in the future to combat gun violence?

3) What can the members of the audience do to promote personal and community safety from gun violence.

 

                      Michael P. Kochis, Chief of Police City of Charlottesville

Michael Kochis has been the Chief of Police for the City of Charlottesville since January 2023. Prior to being appointed to this role, he was the Chief of Police for the Warrenton Police Department for three years after serving as a Commander with the Alexandria Virginia Police Department. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy for Law Enforcement Executives and the Senior Management Institute for Policing through the Police Executive Research Forum. Chief Kochis is an executive board member of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, a member of the Virginia Professional Standards Commission, and currently sits on the Advisory Board for the University of Virginia Center for Public Safety and Justice. Chief Kochis currently holds a Certified Public Manager designation from The George Washington University, a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice administration, and a master’s degree in public safety from the University of Virginia.

 

                               Colonel Sean Reeves, Chief of Police County of Albemarle

Colonel Sean Reeves is the first AC Police Chief to have begun his local law enforcement career with the Department, as well as  the first in ACPD history to be both a Veteran and a member of the Latin American community. He has served the Albemarle community as a patrol officer, detective, SWAT team operator, Honor Guard member, Internal Affairs investigator, in several supervisory roles, and as a community liaison with the localLatin population. Prior to his promotion to Chief, Col. Reeves served as Deputy Chief of Police overseeing the Operations Bureau.

 

    James Hingeley, Commonwealth’s Attorney County of Albemarle

 

James Hingeley was re-elected in 2023 to a second term as Commonwealth’s Attorney. He is also a member of Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice.  He served as public defender for Albemarle County and Charlottesville from 1998 to 2016, and was public defender for Lynchburg, Virginia, from 1991 to 1998.  From 1978 to 1991 he was in private practice in Charlottesville.  After graduation from UVA Law School in 1976, he completed a two-year judicial clerkship for the West Virginia Supreme Court.  Hingeley is a 1969 graduate of Harvard. In 2017 he received UVA Law School’s Shaping Justice Award for Lifetime Achievement in Public Service.  Hingeley has served as president of the Virginia Association of Criminal. Defense Lawyers and the Virginia Fair Trial Project. He served on the Board of Governors of the Virginia Bar Association and was a member of the Virginia State Bar Criminal Law Section Board of Governors.  In 2013 he was elected to Bar Council, the governing board of the Virginia State Bar, representing the 16th Judicial Circuit.

 

The program will be moderated by SSV Board Member, Frank Friedman

 

SSV IS ASKING ALL ATTENDEES TO REGISTER IN ADVANCE AT THE FOLLOWING LINK:
Senior Statesmen of Virginia | The Center Charlottesville (thecentercville.org)

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

 

Past Programs

Past programs are arranged in inverse chronological order.  Speaker bios and links to videos and podcasts are given, with a program summary written by SSV board members