Nurturing Connection, Preserving Dignity

Clara D’Souza, Operations Manager, Spark of Life Master Practitioner, Adhata Trust, Mumbai, India

 Adhata Trust, with its pioneering intergenerational and preventive approach to ageing, is emerging as a quiet force in India’s evolving eldercare landscape. While not a conventional dementia care organisation, Adhata’s work embraces the Spark of Life Model of Care—a globally recognised approach that focuses on rementia, emotional connection, and restoring personhood through unconditional love, empathy and care.

The Spark of Life Philosophy aligns seamlessly with Adhata’s belief that ageing should be a time of dignity, joy, and inclusion—not decline. At its vibrant 15-Holistic Well Being Centres across Mumbai, Adhata fosters environments of love, appreciation, empathy, and optimism, where the focus is on the positive. These are spaces where older adults are not passive recipients but whole human beings, viewed with respect and empowered to make choices—a core tenet of the Spark of Life Model of Care. The atmosphere is intentionally designed to welcome both class and caste diversity and bring out each person’s unique abilities and strengths, nurturing a sense of purpose and belonging.

Prevention with a Purpose:

Adhata Trust’s daily programming lays the groundwork for prevention, awareness, and rementia-inspired environments. Music sessions, storytelling, guided movement, shared laughter therapy, and crafts stimulated cognitive sessions, emotional, and social faculties. These activities contribute not only to joy and engagement, but also to enhanced physical and mental health and a reduction in the risk of falls. Above all, these spaces honour memory, reinforce identity, and place emotional connection at the heart of ageing—bringing Spark of Life Principles towards life.

From Awareness to Action:

Looking ahead, Sadaphuli, Adhata’s upcoming day care centre for seniors with early-stage dementia, is being designed around these very principles: warmth, creativity, and meaningful engagement. Though still in development, its conception marks Adhata’s growing commitment to addressing dementia with sensitivity, dignity, and optimism.

At Adhata, World Alzheimer’s Day (WAD) is more than an awareness day—it’s a celebration of life at every stage, where everyone works together in an atmosphere of empathy and connection. This year’s campaign is deeply aligned with the Spark of Life Philosophy, shifting focus from what is lost to what still remains. The activities planned create spaces of joy, purpose, and storytelling, where older adults can share and be seen.

The Rewind Café is a memory-themed gathering where members revisit cherished songs, family traditions, recipes, and childhood games. These cafés become not only vibrant sites of reminiscence but also safe, loving spaces to talk about memory loss and the ageing journey.

The Memory Quilts– handcrafted by members at each centre, are a moving tribute to resilience, personhood, and personal history. Every patch tells a story—of love, loss, or legacy. Together, they form not just beautiful tapestries, but collective testaments to lives lived fully and meaningfully.

In 2023, Adhata marked World Alzheimer’s Day with a virtual run, uniting hundreds across generations in support of dementia awareness. For 2025, the focus deepens: to create environments that support conversation, connection, and creative memory work, and that reflect the values kindness, respect, inclusion.

A Spark That Sustains

In essence, Adhata Trust is living and practicing the Spark of Life Model. By nurturing spaces of acceptance, engagement, and emotional upliftment, Adhata offers a hopeful, inclusive path forward in a society where dementia still carries stigma and silence.

By celebrating what remains instead of bereft the lost, and by ensuring that members are viewed as whole human beings who are treated respectfully and encouraged to make choices.

Through the support of Dementia Care International’s Spark of Life Model of Care, Adhata Trust works actively towards change and new and positive world for people with dementia.

Adhatian: A Spark Rekindled

Adhatian, a member of Adhata Trust’s Matunga Centre, first joined in 2019. She was active, independent, and eagerly participated in every activity. After the pandemic, she returned in 2021—this time accompanied by her husband, Mullaji—as she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Her condition had declined, especially after COVID, and she now required support with the daily activities of living. It was her physiotherapist, Dr. Nisha Gala, who first recommended Adhata. Her neurologist, Dr. Joy Desai, also noted a significant drop in her mobility.

At this juncture, Adhata became a turning point in her life. The centre offered more than a routine—a sense of belongingness, inclusion, and a warm, positive social environment where members are treated with respect, love, and kindness.  “At first, I was unsure,” says her husband. “I stayed nearby in case she needed me. But slowly, everything changed.”

Through thoughtfully designed sessions that incorporate playfulness, laughter, painting, games, music, and gentle sensory stimulation, Adhatian found her rhythm. She may not always speak, but  now the smile is back, sings softly, and wishes to be a part of the group, feeling accepted and equal. She is supported in ways that focus on restoring her abilities.  Tthis shift has help get back her self-confidence.

At home Adhatian enjoys movies and quiet handwork. On quiet days, her family give her the opportunity to rest. Her family is deeply aware of her condition and approaches it with empathy, not anxiety. “We don’t make it a topic of stress,” her husband explains. “We just support her.”

Adhatian’s journey is a testament to how Adhata Trust, without yet being a formal dementia care centre, practices the Spark of Life Model of Care everyday —through dignity, emotional connection, and creating moments of joy that uplift not only people with dementia but their carers too.