Life before Alzheimer’s San Diego
Originally from Tijuana, Nelly came over to San Diego when she was 17 years old and has loved living in this city with “diverse cultures, traditions and amazing people.” Her previous experiences include roles based around providing education/training for adults on topics such as mindfulness, parenting, and family services. On top of this, Nelly’s master’s degree in counseling psychology and her Clinical Care Coach training have helped her adapt to this new role where she assists people with complicated conversations and issues. She also uses her expertise to establish and maintain meaningful relationships with clients, community professionals, and others. Having joined us in April 2023, Nelly is still one of our newer employees and says this “seems to be perfect for what I was looking for… I wanted to find work in a non-profit where I could use my expertise in clinical skills and resource-sharing to serve our community.”
Helping the Community
As one of several Clinical Care Coaches on our team, Nelly is responsible for speaking with people who call asking for support, connecting them with resources through our organization or elsewhere in the community, and providing personalized client consultations. As she progresses in her role, soon she’ll also begin helping facilitate care partner support groups, which we have over thirty of online and in person.
Nelly’s hope is to “assist the organization in getting more San Diego County residents to learn about our programs and most importantly create awareness around the many issues surrounding a diagnosis of dementia.” This is crucial to her because she knows many areas of the county are not aware of the free services available, and she believes everyone can benefit from them.
Nelly’s Perspective
One of the things that Nelly appreciated early on is how “the connections between staff and clients are genuine, special, and beautiful.” She enjoys using her expertise to be of service and values feedback that helps improve our programs and ways to reach people. Nelly also gives this as an example of how she enjoys people being able to open up with us: “Initially, this person was cautious with what she shared with me, but after speaking for about 10 minutes, she felt so comfortable with me… she opened up about her situation, her family and asked me many questions that I don’t believe she had asked others in the past.” Nelly notes that interactions like these go a long way and she’s grateful to be able to create relationships with people who she likely wouldn’t have connected with otherwise. She encourages people impacted in any way by the disease to contact us, and adds that “by the end of the call, most people, if not all, feel heard and have a new resource.”
If you’d like to speak to one of our Clinical Care Coaches like Nelly, in English or Spanish, call our office at 858-492-4400. You may also attend any of our FREE education classes, social activities/outings, care partner support groups, and more.
By Braulio Ambriz
