In recognition of Grief Awareness Day August 30, here are five tips for how to listen when someone you know is grieving.

I'm delighted to share that our Australian Master Trainer, Sue Silcox has authored and published a book - The ABC of Compassionate Communication.  Sue is passionate about helping people become empowered through learning, practice, support, and self-care.

Stress Reaction is a term being used more often to describe communication in persons living with dementia.  Behavioral expression, too, is communication.  In a growing number of circles, the term behavioral expression is being replaced by stress reaction simply because behaviors sometimes leans toward being a negative descriptive of how persons with dementia express unmet needs.

Caring for people with dementia requires specialized communication skills training.  Unfortunately, healthcare professionals and family caregivers often receive little training to enable them to meet the communicative needs of people with dementia.

Time is precious.  Staff is in short supply.  Family caregivers are stretched to the limit.  Just taking care of the basic needs  is hard enough, so five minutes a day seems - IMPOSSIBLE!

With today’s emphasis on person centered care, communication skills are essential. Any senior care or hospice professional regularly interacts with people with communication challenges stemming from brain injury, stroke, hearing loss; Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease.