LeadingAge Ohio and the Eden Alternative are proud to co-sponor a ground-breaking day-long workshop July 22 focused on the new “experiential” model of dementia care that provides a drug-free, person-centered approach to treating people living with dementia.
Lead by Eden Mentor and geriatrician Dr. Allen Power, the workshop Dementia Beyond Drugs will help practitioners view the disorder through the perspective of the affected individual, rather than relying on antipsychotic drugs and modifications to provide solutions. The day-long workshop will take place at Westminster-Thurber Community in Columbus, Ohio.
Current care of people living with dementia is compromised by the heavy reliance on psychotropic medications to control behavioral distress. In nursing homes throughout industrialized nations about 40% of people with dementia are receiving antipsychotics, despite little evidence of efficacy and increasing concerns about morbidity and mortality.
“The secret to addressing the needs of people with dementia is to step beyond the biomedical model that has dominated our approach for the last half-century,” said Power, author of ”Dementia Beyond Drugs: Changing the Culture of Care” (c. 2010 Health Professions Press, Inc.).
In his book, Dr. Power applied the work of several innovators in person-directed care to challenge the conventional wisdom and redefine dementia. Power found that the process of culture change plays an integral part in successfully sustaining the transformation of the care environment away from reliance on drugs.
Power stresses an emphasis on changing the operational and interpersonal features that disempower, isolate and strip each person of meaningful connection with life and growth. By restoring these features, a new approach is created that promotes well-being without using potentially harmful medication, said Power.
At the end of the session, attendees will be able to:
1. Understand the drawbacks to our current approach to care for people living with dementia.
2. Envision a new “experiential” model, and compare and contrast it with the traditional biomedical approach.
3. Explain a useful approach to defining well-being, and its application in fi nding unmet needs that underlie behavioral distress.
4. Describe the three types of transformation promoted by the major culture change movements, and how they apply to dementia.
5. Model important aspects of interaction and communication with people who live with dementia.
6. Describe a basic algorithm for decoding distress, with appropriate use of medical, environmental and experiential
audits, as needed.
7. Understand the component of our own frame of mind in our interactions
8. Explain an enlightened approach to personal care.
9. Apply the experiential model to specifi c scenarios, such as anger and aggression, sexual disinhibition, hallucinations and delusions.
10. Utilize team activities to investigate the needs behind a person’s distress.
LeadingAge Ohio will provide six hours of continuing education credit through BENHA for administrators, nurses, social workers and certified aging services professionals participating in the workshop.
To register or for questions about the seminar please contact LeadingAge Ohio at (614) 444-2882. Click here to download the Registration Form and Brochure.
