According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, there will be an estimated 130,000 individuals in Missouri living with Alzheimer's or related dementia by 2025.
Here is the touching story of how the Outreach Committee of First Christian Church in Harrisonville came to serve this growing population and honor the memory of one of their own.
After Mary Beth's mother suffered a stroke and was diagnosed with Lewy Body dementia, she and her sister Susan searched for ways to help and comfort their mother in her new surroundings. Research showed that holding and caring for a baby doll can give purpose and comfort to some people with dementia. That was how "Baby Paul" became the newest member of their family.
In the months after her mother's death, Mary Beth felt a growing compassion for the many residents of the multiple care centers in her community who could benefit from having a "baby" to love. In June 2023, she approached the Outreach Ministry at her home church, First Christian Church DOC in Harrisonville, MO, with the idea of the Patricia Project, named after her mother. She proposed a ministry that would provide a realistic, light-weight, newborn-sized baby doll to residents of local care centers who could most benefit, with supervision and guidance from the care staff and support from their families. This would not exclude individuals in private care or hospice. It would be an expression of our belief that Jesus cares for all of us and wants us to share that love.
Because so many of us have family or friends who have developed dementia, the idea was embraced as a way for the Church to share God's love to this often forgotten group of human beings. HIPAA regulations and other privacy issues have limited our personal interaction with residents we don't already know, but we have a desire to educate each facility’s staff about the value of baby dolls and how to determine whom it would most benefit. By providing the dolls, it gives even the most stressed budgets the option to try it out.
In the second half of 2023, we reached out to two local care centers and donated 14 baby dolls. In 2024, we expanded our circle to include 11 care centers in Cass County and have shared 56 baby dolls with women and a few gentlemen.
We feel that each "parent" should have a baby doll that reflects their ethnicity, and have researched the most affordable and realistic dolls of Caucasian, African-American, Latino, and Asian ethnicity. Each doll is personalized with a different sleeper to avoid confusion.
Our church has provided generous funds for baby dolls, but we have also received donations from many individuals who have heard about the project and graciously gave what they could. We now have a webpage and email address, which makes it easier to contact care centers and gives us wider exposure.
One of our original goals has been to share this idea with churches in other communities across Missouri and beyond. We were happy to hear that Faith Christian Church of Buffalo, MO has delivered 12 baby dolls to their local nursing home this October! We pray for their efforts as they begin this ministry.
If you or your church sense a need for this project in your community, please check out our webpage at www.patriciaproject@harrisonvillefcc.org for more information and reference sites about doll therapy for dementia. We are also available on email at patriciaproject@harrisonvillefcc.org for individual questions.
Thank you to Pastor Lizzy Wolf and the
Outreach Committee of FCC for this wonderful story.