AGE-u-cate Training Institute Blog

Montessori's education method for childhood learning was launched in the early 1900s by Maria Montessori.  It calls for free activity within a "prepared environment", meaning an educational environment tailored to basic human characteristics, to the specific characteristics of children at different ages, and to the individual personalities of each child. The function of the environment is to help and allow the child to develop independence in all areas according to his or her inner psychological directives. In addition to offering access to the Montessori materials appropriate to the age of the children, the environment should exhibit the following characteristics:

Topics: dementia care, The Family Caregiver, Senior Care Professionals, Memory Care, activities, eldercare, Montessori, resident engagement

How do you create a senior care community that truly enhances the lives of their residents?  By doing the right things for the right reasons.  Vitality, joy and celebrating the excitement of living was exactly what I felt from the time I entered the doors of Cherrywood Village Retirement Community in Portland, OR last week.

Topics: The Faith Community, The Family Caregiver, Senior Care Professionals, Senior Care, dementia, Person centered care

Comparing apples to oranges is a phrase to describe something which is both the same and different simultaneously depending on your point of view. When someone says "you're comparing apples to oranges" they're really saying "Why are you trying to compare those things? You can't compare apples to oranges, they're just not the same thing."

Topics: The Family Caregiver, Senior Care Professionals, eldercare, VA, skilled nursing, person-centered culture

No misspelling here.   Who needs  AGE-u-cation?  Our care teams, family members, elder care providers, hospitals,  business community, churches, non-profits need to be MUCH better AGE-u-cated®!

Topics: The Faith Community, The Family Caregiver, Senior Care Professionals, Elders, Aging in the Workplace, Training, elderly, AGE-u-cate®, education, hospitals, senior care providers

At least that's what they say here in Texas, when it's 80 degrees one day, and hitting the freezing mark the same night.  We've barely had a winter to speak of this year, so my recent trip to experience the Boston blizzard was an adventure and a treat.  So what does the weather have to do with aging and dementia you ask?

Topics: The Faith Community, The Family Caregiver, Senior Care Professionals, Memory Care, Senior Care, Aging in the Workplace, dementia, Person centered care, weather changes, person-centered thinking

Love is in the air during this week of celebrating Valentines Day. My parents were married on Valentines Day, 1941, so this day always makes me reflect on their 56 years together. Both raised during the tumultuous depression years, they built a successful life together from humble beginnings. True partners in business and life, they raised 5 daughters, and enjoyed many triumphs and together faced many challenges along their journey. Their love certainly endured the test of time.

Topics: Senior Care Professionals

Welcome to the world of healthcare! Having just moved to a state with a very large senior population, many of whom have mild to moderate dementia, my story of navigating the healthcare maze should make us all sit up and ask ourselves how our seniors, especially those with dementia, can traverse this insanity.   Here is my story:

Topics: Senior Care Professionals, Elders, Healthcare Maze, MCI, dementia

Through the years I've had the great privilege to work with thousands of elders and families as my professional career in senior care began in educating families and faith communities.   I will never forget one of my earliest conversations with a couple who had attended a caregiver support group in which I was facilitating.  Emotionally, they shared how their parents had served faithfully in their church for over 40 years and now that they were homebound, the they felt as if they had been forgotten.  This tugged at my heart, as I remembered how vitally important the church was to my own aging parents and how much that care and compassion for our parents comforted us as adult children.

Topics: The Faith Community, The Family Caregiver, Senior Care Professionals, Elders, caregivers, faith communities, church, resources, support

In my office there is a framed print of Nelson Mandela's famous quote "It always seems impossible until IT'S DONE".  I believe hospitals have procrastinated long enough in becoming dementia friendly and the urgency to GET IT DONE is now.

Topics: Senior Care Professionals, Training, leadership, dementia friendly, education, families, hospital, staff, implementation plans, patients, communication skills, holistic therapies

We've almost made it through the 1st month of 2017.  I'm always amazed at how the world seems to stop in its track after Thanksgiving.   Then January rolls around, and  it's All Hands on Deck!  So if your January has hit you like a Nor' East wind,  remember the wise words of one of our greatest authors, Dr. Seuss.... FUN IS GOOD!

Topics: The Family Caregiver, Senior Care Professionals, Elders, Senior Care, fun, dopamine, laughter