SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 16 Dakim Inc. announced today that AmericanWay, a senior living provider with seven homes on four campuses, has become the first provider in Wisconsin to adopt the Dakim(R) BrainFitness(TM) System company-wide to provide daily cognitive stimulation to community residents. Dakim's entertaining touch screen-based system is specifically designed to help seniors maintain their brain health and fight the threat of dementia.
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AmericanWay began using the Dakim system at its Harbor Suites community in Madison in May, and recently installed additional units at its remaining single-family ranch-style homes for dementia and frail elderly care in Portage and Randolph, Wisconsin. The company also plans to offer use of the system to local seniors who need dementia support, providing a community service as well as giving AmericanWay a recruitment tool for area residents who may need assisted living in the future.
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The Dakim system is now used by 300 communities in the U.S., making it the #1 choice for dedicated cognitive stimulation among senior living providers. Users include independent retirement, assisted living and skilled nursing communities, adult day care centers and senior centers.
"We are always looking for strategies to enhance our residents' quality of life. Dakim's brain fitness technology is proving to be a major contribution to that effort," said Janis Nowak, president of AmericanWay and incoming president of the Wisconsin Assisted Living Association (WALA). "We have people at our Madison community who are on the Dakim system several times a day, and their faces light up when they sit down to play."
"Brain fitness is becoming a cornerstone of wellness programming for senior care providers," said Dakim CEO Dan Michel. "AmericanWay's commitment to providing residents in all of their communities with daily cognitive stimulation is another sign of the momentum that is building in the industry, and we believe we will see more chain-wide adoptions in the coming year."
Dakim's dominance in the senior brain fitness field stems from a combination of a unique game show-style multimedia presentation, "oldies" content to which seniors can relate, self-adjustment for different ability levels, and a self-service design that significantly reduces the need for caregiver assistance and associated costs.
Played on a special touch screen computer that requires no mouse, keyboard or computer knowledge, Dakim BrainFitness offers entertaining, original brain-building activities filled with colorful images, stories, humor, and senior-friendly pre-1950s film and music clips that are updated every few days to sustain interest. The system self-adjusts the level of challenge for users ranging from active seniors to early-stage Alzheimer's patients.
The emphasis on promoting sustained use - unique in the brain fitness market - is based on numerous studies demonstrating a substantial reduction in dementia risk with consistent, long-term mental stimulation. One 21-year study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that the risk can be lowered by as much as 63%, apparently by building a cognitive reserve that can help compensate for brain aging.
Each 20-minute Dakim BrainFitness session exercises short- and long-term memory, critical thinking, visuospatial orientation, calculation and language for a thorough brain workout. Activities range from anagrams and name-that-tune challenges to interactive puzzles and narrated literary passages with follow-up questions. Friendly and frequently humorous voiceovers explain each challenge as well as offering encouragement, even if users give wrong answers.
A free 30-day trial is available to qualified senior living communities by calling Dakim Inc. at (800) 856-5502. Consumers can purchase the system for home use at www.dakim.com or by calling 888-MY-DAKIM.
About Dakim Inc.
Dakim Inc. is the leading provider of brain fitness programs that provide rigorous cognitive stimulation to help seniors reduce their risk of memory loss and dementia. The Dakim BrainFitness System is a touch screen-based mental stimulation system that offers a constantly changing series of challenging but entertaining multimedia activities to help seniors preserve brain function. Home users can use it to combat a decline in brain function; institutions and home caregivers can use it to provide effective mental stimulation while reducing the cost of resident care. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA. For more information, visit www.dakim.com.
SOURCE Dakim Inc.
