Courter Memory Center offers Kalamazoo County families a place where adults with dementia and cognitive decline are cared for, engaged, and known by name.
Courter Memory Center provides daytime care and companionship for adults living with dementia, cognitive decline, and age-related physical limitations. The focus is socialization — through activities, reminiscing, music, and the kind of stimulation that helps people stay connected to who they are.
Heather Mauney Pershing, the center’s Director, says she understands the weight of that search firsthand: finding a place where you can bring a loved one and trust they’ll be cared for and loved.
That trust shows up in how families describe dropping off and picking up their loved ones each day. Judy, whose family member attends the program, says she feels comfortable and relaxed knowing her mother will be safe, happy, and engaged during her time at the center.
Pershing says dementia conversations tend to focus on what’s been lost — but at Courter, the staff sees something different every day: how much of a person’s individuality remains, and how much can still be drawn out. Guests who are nonverbal at home, or who’ve lost touch with activities they once loved, often begin doing those things again in the program’s care.
For George McBride, a guest at the center, that shows up simply as feeling welcome — and finding peers his age who understand what he’s going through. “We can feed off of each other,” he says.
Pershing encourages families not to wait. It’s never too early to seek out available resources or start building a support network, she says — and Courter Memory Center aims to be the top dementia care provider in Kalamazoo County.
Judy sums up what that care has meant for her family simply: her mother feels like she’s home.
To learn more about Courter Memory Center, visit their website or call 269-585-7790.
