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?
Yikes - I think it's a great analogy! Have you walked the floors of a Memory Care Community lately? The sun is shining and people are happy. But wait 5 minutes... maybe 5 seconds... and the weather can all change. The blizzard can move in quickly and chaos panic and disorder can soon be the order of the day. Time for deep breathing and some quick meditation. Person centered care... what's that?!
I love the term PERSON-CENTERED THINKING. That takes person-centered care to a whole new level. To me, person-centered thinking implies that our first response, our actions, our thought process is focused on another's well being. When we have tools in our belt that allow us to respond to behavioral expression that look like rain, snow, blizzard or tornado - we're ready.
Are we equipping our care partners in senior care with the right tools to weather the storms?
I'm going to venture to guess that most of "us", because we're all in this together, could do a better job. After all, there is always room to grow, right? Innovation, creativity and the will to want to be better at what we do is a part of life. We all want to be better equipped to weather the storms.
That blizzard that hit Boston a week ago was followed by a bright beautiful sunny day. Everyone got back to work and life. I was able to do what I had travelled there to do (training), flew home the next day....
...and the storm hit again!
For information on the University of Minnesota's Person-Centered Thinking program:
http://rtc3.umn.edu/pctp/training/intro.asp
