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Jenifer Apazidis has launched the concept of a purple table to help restaurants better accommodate people with mental health diseases.

Alzheimer's Partnership Seeks To Bring 'Purple Tables' To Berkshires

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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Participating restaurants have decals to let people know they accept the reservations.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Jenifer Apazidis remembers going out to eat with her mother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
 
Her mother was diagnosed at age 59 and looked completely young and healthy. 
 
"She looked in her 40s, young, blonde hair, she didn't look old at all. When we'd go out to a restaurant people were so confused. She couldn't really talk. She'd try to order for herself, she tried to point to things and people looked at her like she was drunk or confused. They'd look to me and if I did anything, she would get upset. She just wanted to order on her own," Apazidis said. 
 
Eventually, they stopped going out to eat altogether. 
 
But Apazidis didn't forget what that felt like. Shortly after opening her own restaurant, she had a customer say her son was autistic and asked for some additional accommodations. That family seldom went out to eat because they never knew how the experience would go but this was a birthday.
 
Apazidis took the small list of the accommodations and worked with staff to provide it. The staff limited their interactions and had just one server -- instead of bussers and managers -- be dedicated to the table to limit distractions and changes. They make a note to avoid clanking plates. They made sure the food wasn't touching each other because that's what the boy wanted. They thought of the best seat in the house, one in the corner where the boy could see everything but still felt safe. 
 
"They stayed there all night. They had a great time," Apazidis said.
 
It struck her that she'd hadn't really had many requests like that and it wasn't that hard to do. She looked back at the reservations from the prior years and found only a couple asking for such accommodations. Meanwhile, she remembers plenty of people leaving because of such things as the room is too loud for someone with dementia.
 
That is what triggered her idea of a "purple table." She developed trainings specifically geared toward restaurant managers and servers. The training sets guidelines and checklists of the best ways restaurant staff can interact and serve a customer with autism, Alzheimer's, dementia, and post-traumatic stress disorder and the best environment for those customers to be in. 
 
"The No. 1 thing is being informed and aware. The host, as soon as they see that there is a purple table, they have a checklist," Apazidis said. "There is a process whenever there is a purple table. It is always there. It is just part of what we do now on a daily basis."
 
She launched a website and reservation process. A customer can discretely make a reservation and simply ask for a purple table -- adding in as little or as much information about the customer's condition as they choose. The restaurant staff sees that request and then implements a process to serve that table in a way that is easier for that family.
 
"It is not so much about the condition a person is living with, it is about creating the environment around them," she said.
 
After she launched the program, a young soldier who had just recently returned from two trips overseas heard about it. He has severe post-traumatic stress disorder but his girlfriend loves to go out. He struggles to be in a place if he has to sit with his back toward a door and it embarrasses him when they go places and he has to leave or ask to be moved. 
 
He booked a table at Apazidis' Red Raven Restaurant in Acton and was happy with the accommodations without even having to explain himself. He read through the best practices Apazidis had crafted, and while they seemed relatively small, they were meaningful to him.
 
"He couldn't believe we hit the nail on the head without having to do anything," she said.
 
Apazidis has two specific tables -- identified as the best for people with such conditions -- set aside for purple table customers to choose from once they arrive.
 
The most important thing is having staff prepared and knowledgeable about the customer so they aren't caught off guard and vice versa, she said. Many people with such conditions often go to restaurants with a bit of anxiety wondering how the trip will go. 
 
"I think maintaining a predictable environment at all costs is the most important part of a purple table," Apazidis said.
 
She added there has also been somewhat of a cultural change among staff. She said when there had been a rambunctious child in the past, behind the scenes, servers would negatively be judging and complaining about the child. But now, she said her employees wonder what is going on and how they could help. Often there are times when even though somebody didn't specifically request a purple table, she said, servers have been able to notice something with the guests and opt to use the purple table guidelines. 
 
"We're now a better community restaurant because we offer this," Apazidis said.
 
The Berkshire Alzheimers Partnership recently got in touch with Apazidis and is now looking to bring her program to local restaurants. On Monday, the organization invited restaurant owners to meet with Apazidis to learn about it and are actively reaching out to other owners to tell them about it. 
 
If a restaurant joins, Purple Table will send provide training programs, marketing material, and include them on a directory of restaurants that have purple table reservations and protocols. There is an annual fee for the program but Apazidis said having such an option has proven to bring in new customers. She said there are constantly people looking through the directory for suitable places.
 
The program is still relatively new, being crafted within the last year or so with fewer than 20 restaurants, and most of those eastern part of the state. But Apazidis is hoping the concept and terminology of a "purple table" will catch on.

Tags: accessibility,   dining event,   mental health,   restaurants,   

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Crosby/Conte Statement of Interest Gets OK From Council

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Architect Carl Franceschi and Superintendent Joseph Curtis address the City Council on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the approval of all necessary bodies, the school district will submit a statement of interest for a combined build on the site of Crosby Elementary School.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously gave Superintendent Joseph Curtis the green light for the SOI to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 12.

"The statement I would make is we should have learned by our mistakes in the past," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"Twenty years ago, we could have built a wastewater treatment plant a lot cheaper than we could a couple of years ago and we can wait 10 years and get in line to build a new school or we can start now and, hopefully, when we get into that process and be able to do it cheaper then we can do a decade from now."

The proposal rebuilds Conte Community School and Crosby on the West Street site with shared facilities, as both have outdated campuses, insufficient layouts, and need significant repair. A rough timeline shows a feasibility study in 2026 with design and construction ranging from 2027 to 2028.

Following the SOI, the next step would be a feasibility study to determine the specific needs and parameters of the project, costing about $1.5 million and partially covered by the state. There is a potential for 80 percent reimbursement through the MSBA, who will decide on the project by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, city officials took a tour of both schools — some were shocked at the conditions students are learning in.

Silvio O. Conte Community School, built in 1974, is a 69,500 square foot open-concept facility that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but the quad classroom layout poses educational and security risks.  John C. Crosby Elementary School, built in 1962, is about 69,800 square feet and was built as a junior high school so several aspects had to be adapted for elementary use.

Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said the walkthrough was "striking" at points, particularly at Conte, and had her thinking there was no way she would want her child educated there. She recognized that not everyone has the ability to choose where their child goes to school and "we need to do better."

"The two facilities that we are looking at I think are a great place to start," she said.

"As the Ward 6 councilor, this is where my residents and my students are going to school so selfishly yes, I want to see this project happen but looking at how we are educating Pittsfield students, this is going to give us a big bang for our buck and it's going to help improve the educational experience of a vast group of students in our city."

During the tour, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, saw where it could be difficult to pay attention in an open classroom with so much going on and imagined the struggle for students.

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said, "we cannot afford not to do this" because the city needs schools that people want their children to attend.

"I know that every financial decision we make is tough but we have to figure this out. If the roof on your house were crumbling in, you'd have to figure it out and that's where we're at and we can't afford to wait any longer," she said.

"We can't afford for the sake of the children going to our schools, for the sake of our city that we want to see grow so we have to build a city where people want to go."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, who served on the School Building Needs Commission for about 18 years, pointed out that the panel identified a need to address Conte in 2008.

Curtis addressed questions about the fate of Conte if the build were to happen, explaining that it could be kept as an active space for community use, house the Eagle Academy or the Adult Learning Center, or house the central offices.

School attendance zones are a point of discussion for the entire school district and for this project.

"At one time I think we had 36 school buildings and now we have essentially 12 and then it would go down again but in a thoughtful way," Curtis said.

Currently, eight attendance zones designate where a student will go to elementary school. Part of the vision is to collapse those zones into three with hopes of building a plan that incorporates partner schools in each attendance zone.

"I think that going from eight schools to three would be easier to maintain and I think it would make more sense but in order to get there we will have to build these buildings and we will have to spend money," Kavey said, hoping that the city would receive the 80 percent reimbursement it is vying for.

This plan for West Street, which is subject to change, has the potential to house grades pre-kindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another with both having their own identities and administrations. 

The districtwide vision for middle school students is to divide all students into a grade five and six school and a grade seven and eight school to ensure equity.

"The vagueness of what that looks like is worrisome to some folks that I have talked to," Lampiasi said.

Curtis emphasized that these changes would have to be voted on by the School Committee and include public input.

"We've talked about it conceptually just to illustrate a possible grade span allocation," he said. "No decisions have been made at all by the School Committee, even the grade-span proposals."

School Committee Chair William Cameron said it is civic duty of the committee and council to move forward with the SOI.
 
He explained that when seven of the city's schools were renovated in the late 1990s, the community schools were only 25 years old and Crosby was 35 years old.  The commonwealth did not deem them to be sorely in need of renovation or replacement.
 
"Now 25 years later, Crosby is physically decrepit and an eyesore. It houses students ages three to 11 in a facility meant for use by teenagers,"
 
"Conte and Morningside opened in the mid-1970s. They were built as then state-of-the-art schools featuring large elongated rectangles of open instructional space. Over almost half a century, these physical arrangements have proven to be inadequate for teaching core academic skills effectively to students, many of whom need extra services and a distraction-free environment if they are to realize their full academic potential."
 
He said  the proposal addresses a serious problem in the "economically poorest, most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse area" of the city.
 
Cameron added that these facilities have been deemed unsatisfactory and need to be replaced as part of the project to reimagine how the city can best meet the educational needs of its students.  He said it is the local government's job to move this project forward to ensure that children learn in an environment that is conducive to their thriving academically.
 
"The process of meeting this responsibility needs to begin here tonight," he said.
 
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