Healthcare is quickly becoming dementia care. Whether you work in a clinic, long term care, home care, or hospital, you will interact with people dementia.  And these people will likely have speech and language challenges.  Dementia care training often focuses on the underlying impairment when care partners really need practical solutions.  Easy-to-learn dementia communication skills, save both parties frustration. Here are a helpful strategies.

Senior Care

Thank you to Pioneer Network for allowing us to share these thoughts..

Houston, We Have a Problem
Ruta Kadonoff
Executive Director, Pioneer Network

Is it just me, or are there red flags everywhere lately, calling on us to take notice of the impending collision between our demographics and our workforce trends? Evidence is mounting and the chorus of voices is growing, begging us to recognize that we are on the brink of true crisis. I see many parallels between this issue and the climate change discussion. Whatever your personal convictions about possible causes and potential solutions to either, the data seem to be increasingly clear and screaming ever-louder, 'Houston, we have a problem.'

I'd like to share a few quotes that have been rattling around in my head over recent days and weeks ...

"We're never going to attract a workforce unless they are going to get paid a livable wage, or at least a somewhat livable wage, and benefits."
- Betsy Sawyer-Manter, Executive Director, SeniorsPlus, quoted in Sun Journal (Lewiston, ME)

What the heck is Winfield and what does it have to do with this blog? There are some things in life that so nourish our souls that they should become non-negotiable. For anyone whose career is taking care of others, that should be a commitment to our own wellness. Nurses, social workers, family caregivers, therapists, activity professionals, chaplains, you name it—we’re all in the same boat when it comes to self-care.  How we each “do” self-care is a personal choice. My choice is Winfield!

The Walnut Valley Festival is a five-day music festival that, since 1972, takes place in Winfield, Kansas on the third weekend of September. The first time I went was in 1977 when I was a college student. I’ve been back almost every year since! The folks who make the journey simply call it “Winfield”.  You see, it’s not just a place or an event, but an experience that got in my heart and didn’t let go.  So why would a middle-aged woman want to camp in a field in a tent in 100 degree weather, rain, mud –this year the river has flooded the area-- cold and even a tornado a couple of years ago? Oh, and packed in with 12,000 other people? The awesome music heard 24 hours each day? Yeah, but that’s not it.

It's 10:30 in the morning.  Your job is to facilitate the reading of the morning newspaper to a group of dementia care patients and you have a choice as to how to best carry it out.

Option #1. You gather a group of thirty or so people into a large circle while you summarize the newspaper headlines and articles aloud.

Option #2.  You gather a group of five around a small table. Each holds a copy of the paper, turning the pages while one, or more, read the headlines, taking the group in a multitude of conversational directions.

As the leader, which would you choose?

Now put yourself in the place of a person living with dementia and imagine you have difficulty, integrating sounds, figuring out the environment, seeing and hearing who is talking and wondering if they are even talking to you.

Most of us don’t give much thought to items we use in our everyday lives. But the memories of these seemingly benign objects reconnect us with moments of meaning in our lives.

Sustainability in training programs that improve patient and resident outcomes is critically important. Upper and middle managment must embrace change initiatives in order to successfully compete in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

Let’s imagine that you have dementia. What would you miss? What would you forget about that you enjoy? We all forget the details of our lives and often take the little things we enjoy for granted. People living with dementia can rarely seek out enjoyable activities independently and often even forget what used to bring them pleasure. That is unless memory is triggered. Knowing that, how might you activate pleasure linked to past experiences?