Compassionate Touch® Year-End Results for North Carolina Civil Monetary Penalty Project Funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - AGE-u-cate in the News

CMS Funds Year 2 of Compassionate Touch Project beginning March 1, 2020

Atlanta, GA & Bedford, TX – AGE-u-cate Training Institute (www.AGEucate.com) has completed year one of the Civil Monetary Penalty funded project awarded by  the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to help 66 North Carolina Nursing homes to improve care to residents with dementia.

The project is titled “Compassionate Touch: A Practical, Non-Pharmacological Approach to Ease Behavioral Symptoms, thereby Supporting Nursing Homes’ Efforts to Minimize the Use of Antipsychotic Medications for Dementia-related Behaviors.”

Compassionate Touch® is an approach combining skilled touch and specialized communication shown to prevent behavioral expression in people with dementia and reduce job stress in care-partners.

The goal of this project was to equip staff working in 66 North Carolina nursing homes with practical skilled touch techniques to incorporate in daily care routines. Compassionate Touch training was also conducted for North Carolina state surveyors, long-term care ombudsman, and the North Carolina Quality Improvement Organization.

66 North Carolina nursing homes received in-person training across all regions of the state.  A total of 197 sessions were completed and 2,090 staff received the Compassionate Touch training.

AGE-u-cate is pleased to report the following data results from this project:

• Reported 28.5% decrease in physical behavior with residents living with dementia, exceeding the expected outcome of 10% reduction.
• Reported 28.2% decrease in verbal behaviors toward others in residents living with dementia, exceeding the expected outcome of 10% reduction.
• Reported 24.2% decrease in the presence of other behavioral symptoms not directed towards others, exceeding the expected outcome of 10% reduction.
• Reported 22.8% decrease in presence and frequency of rejection of care, exceeding the expected outcome of 10% reduction.
• In addition, changes in antipsychotic medication usage reported an 18% reduction.

Feedback from staff included the following comments:

• Resident is less combative when performing CT prior to giving care
• Three psychotropic medications have been discontinued and significantly reduced
• We have a resident that yells out most of the day.We have started using CT with her, and after about 15 minutes she becomes very relaxed and quiet.
• We have a resident who constantly attempts to stand up from her chair and is a high risk for falls.Since CT has started, she has shown a decrease in falls and will sit much longer after CT is performed.
• We are seeing a reduction in behaviors across the facility, not just in our target group.
• One or our coaches was giving a hand rub to the resident and the feedback from the resident was amazing and intimate, as the resident shared a nice smile in appreciation.

“We have been honored to support the long-term care culture change initiatives in North Carolina through this project.  The researched benefits of Compassionate Touch to reduce anxiety, loneliness and isolation to name a few, and our findings through this project support the transformational power of human connection, especially for those living with dementia.  We look forward to continuing our work in North Carolina,” stated Pam Brandon, AGE-u-cate’s President and Founder.

About AGE-u-cate Training Institute
AGE-u-cate Training Institute develops and delivers innovative, research-based aging and dementia training programs for professional and family caregivers.  Training is delivered across the United States and internationally in long term care communities, hospitals, in-home, hospice,community-based organizations and universities.

AGE-u-cate contact:  Mary Petersen, Manager of Client Engagement
817.857.1157 x 204, mary.petersen@ageucate.com

NC Department of Health and Human Services contact:  Becky Wertz, Section Chief Division of Health Service Regulation, Nursing Home Licensure and Certification Section   919.855.4580, becky.wertz@dhhs.nc.gov