Tag: dementia

  • Dementia: Compassionate Communication

    As a dementia educator, I am often asked why people living with dementia (PLWD) ask the same question over and over again. My reply is, “Because their brain is failing.” Every day, PLWDs are going through chemical and physical brain changes. Due to brain failure causing multiple problems with short-term memory, a PLWD can get…

  • Positive Physical Approach to Dementia Care

    People living with dementia need guidance, human connection and a sense of independence. In my professional practice, we use the Positive Physical Approach. This innovative modality developed by Teepa Snow teaches family caregivers more effective ways to understand and communicate with their loved ones and all people with dementia.

  • Dementia: Helping Your GEMS® Shine

    GEMS® is a staging system for dementia. Teepa Snow, OTR and founder of the Positive Approach to Care® philosophy, recreated the Allen Cognitive system of staging dementia with a positive twist. We can now view our Person Living With Dementia as one of Teepa’s GEMS® rather than on a scale of 1 to 7 or…

  • Redirection Using Humor

    Do you know a Person Living With Dementia (PLWD) who repeatedly asks the same question? Does your loved one obsess about leaving the house so that they can go home? Maybe you know of a grandmother who blames everyone in sight for stealing her items. Challenging behaviors are common among PLWD and care partners are…

  • MemorC: A Free Memory Aid

    One of the challenges for caregivers of those with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia is finding ways to engage their loved one or patient in tasks that strengthen the ability to recall who people are and what their relationship with them is. Dr. Warren Wong, a local geriatrician with decades of experience working with…

  • Dementia and Vision Changes

    Human beings use five ways to take in data: sight, touch, smell, taste and sound. From the time we are born, we prefer to take in data first by what we see, then hear and finally through touch. Vision, our primary source for processing new information, is controlled by an area in the back of…

  • Memory Loss & Aging

    At some point we’ve all had times of forgetfulness or misplacing things. Our keys get lost or we draw a blank trying to remember where the car is parked or what we just ate for breakfast. We can usually sort it out and remember things with some time and patience. But when is forgetfulness or…

  • From a Patient’s Point of View

    People living with dementia (PLWD) have challenges with verbal communication: language comprehension, speech production, and vocabulary. But they are not unconscious to what is going on around them. Even as the brain declines, emotional intelligence is preserved. PLWD take in data visually rather than auditorily and react to what they think is happening. As caregivers…

  • Healthy Aging and Hearing Loss

    As we age, our hearing often loses its edge. Clinical research suggests that hearing loss can have a negative effect on some key measures of healthy aging as cognitive, physical and social functioning decline. A study by the National Institute on Aging indicates that people with untreated hearing loss are significantly more at risk of…

  • Repetitive Questioning in Alzheimer’s

    In home care, a question I often get is how to care for someone with Alzheimer’s who asks the same questions over and over again. To better understand and manage what’s going on, it helps to first know a bit on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.