Time Out facilitates meaningful, in-home engagement through intergenerational companionship by connecting older adults with PMC-trained college students. This includes conversation, reading, music, and may also include light meal preparation, laundry, and light grocery shopping. It does not include personal care — such as bathing, dressing, feeding, or toileting — nor administering medications or therapies. While private respite care may cost more than $20 an hour, Time Out care providers will be available for $8.50 an hour, up to 10 hours per week. Penn Memory Center families who would like to sign up or learn more should contact Meg Kalafsky, Time Out Program Coordinator, at (267) 624-4282 or megan.kalafsky@pennmedicine.
By Danny Yarnall
Hazel Souder rises for an early trip to the gym before her husband Louis is awake. These quiet moments can be precious for her, the quiet moments when she’s not just a wife or a caregiver to Louis, who has Alzheimer’s. All that’s asked of her in these moments is to just be Hazel.
“You have to continue to define yourself in every stage of life,” said Hazel, who will be 80 next December.
Thanks to Time Out, a collaboration between PMC and Temple University that trains students as respite workers and offers an affordable alternative to agency care, Hazel can continue to define herself and take on all the other responsibilities she has to Louis as a wife and caregiver.