2017 AHC/NCAL Annual Convention & Expo
How to Deliver Strength Based Dementia Care That Supports Quality Initiatives
Millions of Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia, and the number is increasing each year. As a result, memory care is experiencing significant growth in the senior living industry. However, caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia is very complex, and poor outcomes such as excess disability, hospitalizations, falls, poor quality of life, negative behaviors, and overuse of antipsychotic medications have been commonplace. Therefore, there has been a considerable focus on improving the quality of dementia care and services with the goal of producing more favorable outcomes for people with dementia, their care providers, and society as a whole.
Strength-based dementia practice and programs are essential for facilitating quality dementia care outcomes. This session will identify the primary retained strengths associated with each dementia stage and will define how these strengths, combined with other typical stage characteristics, directly correlate to establishing realistic expectations for the level of function for each stage. In addition, specific compensatory care strategies, in which care partners access and use the retained strengths while compensating for the diminished or lost abilities, will be described for each dementia stage. Video case studies will demonstrate implementation of some of the key strategies. An explanation of how to integrate a strength-based philosophy into resident cognitive assessments, care planning, and programming will be provided. Specific examples of how strength-based dementia care and programming can help providers achieve quality initiatives will be presented.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the primary retained strengths associated with each dementia stage and the direct correlation of the stage to the highest possible level of function and safety
- Describe how the interdisciplinary team can implement a strength based, person-centered philosophy into the care system to optimize function and quality of life, and to utilize for non-pharmacologic management of distress behaviors, and risk mitigation
- Examine some of the new dementia care regulations and quality initiatives, and how this approach can help prepare the organization and interdisciplinary team to meet these requirements
Kim Warchol, OTR/L
President and Founder of Dementia Care Specialists
CPI/Dementia Care SpecialistsDisclosures: Crisis Prevention Institute : Employee, Salary