Deanne Rehberg and her team of memory-care specialists were there for support, but the group of seniors with dementia who’d gathered for a Red Hat Club meeting were the ones in charge. And that meant that the conversation was wide-ranging, free-flowing, and, at times, quite emotional. One resident, not a big talker, was moved to share pictures from a family photo album. Another recalled the grief of losing a child. The other members of the club were there to hear them out and share their own memories. “That’s the importance of these groups,” Rehberg says. “People need an outlet to talk about their feelings.”

For Rehberg, that’s become one of the keys to a holistic approach to memory care adopted by the Masonic Homes of California. Rehberg, as the newly appointed director of memory care, oversees with her staff the Traditions program, which serves seniors dealing with memory loss, from the affliction’s earliest stages to its most advanced forms.

Engagement is at the beating heart of the program. “What happens with people with dementia is that people start taking things away from them,” she says. “But one of the essential things you can do to slow the disease and maintain cognitive levels is to keep up social connections—things like going out with peers, giving back to the community, doing service projects.”

Those kinds of social activities, along with regular exercise and brain-boosting games, have been shown to slow the progression of memory loss by as much as 60 percent for people with an early diagnosis, Rehberg says. “As long as there’s support in place, there’s nothing that should be holding seniors back.”

Rehberg, who has spent more than 20 years in senior care and memory care, says that’s the driving force behind Traditions, which includes several important components.