Margaret Jo Hogg Dementia Support Center: New name, same amazing service

ALBANY – Ask Nancy Goode, the executive director of the Margaret Jo Hogg Dementia Support Center in Albany, why she does what she does when most of her peers have settled into retirement, and she offers a beatific smile.

“It’s just so satisfying, being able to help people,” Goode said. “I’m a resourceful person, and I like helping people figure out the answers to their problems. I took care of my mom, who had dementia, so I know what people are going through.”

Indeed she does. Goode worked for 13 years with the state Alzheimer’s Association and two with the Rosalyn Carter Institute in Americus after a 17-year stint with the state Department of Labor. When she left that position and had time on her hands, she was asked by a friend to conduct an Alzheimer’s Memory Walk. And a spark was ignited.

“We raised $10,000, and their board was so excited,” Goode said. “They asked me if I’d do part-time work with their education program. When the local organization moved to Tifton, I got the job with the Rosalynn Carter Institute in Americus. But it was only funded through a two-year grant.

“I was on the (local Alzheimer Association) board here, and when one of the administrators announced she was leaving, she asked me if I wanted the job. Then when the executive director retired in 2021, I was offered this job.”

The local Alzheimer’s Association, which recently changed its name to the Margaret Jo Hogg Dementia Support Center because, as Goode said, “there are eight different types of dementia, even though 76% of diagnoses are for Alzheimer’s,” moved to its current location at 229 North Jackson St. on property owned by First Methodist Church of Albany and built using funds donated by Hogg, a beloved local educator.

“This place is amazing,” Goode said while giving a visitor a tour of the facility. “We actually moved here from our place on Jefferson Street that was a remodeled service station. Strangely, though, there are fewer people who come here than the other location.”

First Methodist donated the building to the Dementia Support Center but still owns the property on which it sits.

“If something were to happen and we go out of business – and I hope we do, as we get closer to finding a cure – the property goes back to the church,” Goode said.

In addition to First Methodist, the Dementia Support Center is funded primarily by the Southwest Georgia Council on Aging and through memorials, grants and donations. And it provides significant care for area individuals diagnosed with dementia. Dougherty County, Goode points out, ranks seventh in the nation in diagnosed dementia patients in people over age 65, according to an international study.

“That’s scary,” Goode said.

Certain clients’ long-term care insurance may pay some of the costs for services, but neither Medicare nor Medicaid is accepted.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, and one in three older adults dies with the disease or some other form of dementia. The organization also noted that Alzheimer’s and other dementias will cost the nation $384 billion dollars this year, and by 2050 the cost will rise to nearly $1 trillion.

Other forms of dementia, Goode noted, are vascular, Parkinson’s, frontotemporal, hydrocephalus, Huntington’s, Creutzfeldt-Jacob and Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome.

At the Hogg Support Center, a staff of eight employees and a number of volunteers provide day-care services that occupy the clients who come to the center from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Mondays-Fridays. During their visits, clients’ time is filled with activities that include stories, games, chair exercises, music, bingo, singing and a hot lunch prepared at Phoebe North.

Activities Director Martha Hale, who had held a similar position at Wynfield Park Health & Rehabilitation Center before retiring, was coaxed into working at the Dementia Support Center three days a week.

“She does an amazing job,” Goode said. “She created a game that I believe she should patent; it allows the clients to ‘play baseball, football and have snowman races.’

“We have volunteers like Tim Yates, who comes two days a week and does landscaping as well as bakes cakes and leads other activities, and Ruth Henry comes in every Tuesday and does things like reading stories, leading singing and other activities. All our volunteers are wonderful.”

Jon DuMond is the center’s accountant, and RN Marjorie Womack is a full-time staffer who responds to health issues and helps implement the assisted living program required at the facility.

“I’ve been doing this since 1986,” Womack said. “I am an RN and can tend to health care needs, but I have helped design assisted living programs in a residential setting. (My interest in this program) began when I started working with seniors and found that I enjoyed the experience.”

The local Dementia Support Center offers its services for $10 a day, which helps, essentially, to offset the cost of meals.

“A lot of places charge $50, $80 or even $100 a day, so we feel that we offer a valuable service at as low a cost as possible,” Goode noted. “We have a few ‘scholarships,’ but no one is ever turned away.”

Caregivers interested in having persons under their care utilize the Hogg Center, which is regulated by the state of Georgia, must provide a doctor’s diagnosis, and the client must be mobile and able to feed themselves and go to the bathroom alone or tell caregivers when they need to go.

Goode said the center hosts support groups to help caregivers and loved ones of dementia patients to cope. One is for men only, the other for families.

“We tell them we have a mantra: ‘You gotta take care of you,’” she said.

The Dementia Support Center, Goode said, is in the midst of a PR campaign to spread the word about its services. Along with the name change, the center is working to improve its Facebook and web pages. One of its primary announcements is that its annual fundraiser is set this year for April 17. Supporters will get dinner and dancing to the music of the Grapevine Band at Doublegate Country Club. 

“We did that last year, and we had so many people come up to us and say, ‘Y’all do that again,’ so we are,” Goode said.

Talk just a little while with Nancy Goode, and you can’t help but get caught up in her enthusiasm. She certainly is the right person for the job she’s taken on.

“I’m 76, my husband has died and my kids are grown,” she said. “I have seven grandchildren, and the only one that lives here is grown. I love coming to work every day; I enjoy the job and I enjoy the people I’m surrounded by. This is my home, and I plan to keep doing this as long as I’m able.”