One of the Nation’s Leading Dementia Educators

Teepa Snow
Best Practices in Dementia Care: Learning to Give Care, Without the Fight
Thursday, May 31, 2018, 9:00a – 4:00p (check-in & light breakfast at 8:30a)

Fireside Inn & Suites – West Lebanon, NH
6 CEUs

This in-depth intensive workshop will help learners use effective strategies for helping people with dementia during interactions, care delivery, and daily engagement. The goal is to help reduce resistance to care and foster participation and use of preserved skills. To do this, the workshop will guide learners to help them develop better observational skills to recognize and intervene effectively when behavioral challenges occur. It will emphasize the value of matching helping behaviors to the person’s needs and retained abilities to promote a sense of control and self-direction.   Modifying the task demands, the environment, the caregiver’s approach are three key elements to improving the situation. These three elements combined with knowledge of the individual’s background and life story, medical, psychological, and sensory conditions, and level of cognitive function will form the base for problem solving and personalized care planning.  Various sessions through the workshop will address typical issues that occur from early stages of the condition, through mid-disease, and into the final care concerns that are part of the progression. Each session will help learners focus on carefully monitoring people with cognitive impairment for signs and signals of “unmet needs and growing distress” in order to intervene early and often with meaningful programming and empathetic communication. This effort to create a positive and caring environment rather than ‘dealing with the behavior’ after it is established and full-blown will be promoted as a more effective model of caregiving.

Attendance Fee:
$150.00 Members * $250 Non-members
SPECIAL GROUP DISCOUNT:  5 from same facility for cost of 4!  $600(m)/$1000(n)

Understanding Dementia Care: Part 1

This session forms the core of all we will do in the workshop. The emphasis is on helping you see things differently. By the end of the morning, you will have some “AH HA” moments as you appreciate the impact of dementia on intake of data, processing of data, and therefore what the person will do, say, think, believe and is less likely and be able to do. The Gem Model will be introduced to address progressive changes over time with a positive perspective, focusing on what remains and what is unique and holds value, even as other things change and are lost.

Understanding Dementia Care: Part 2

We will build on what we now ‘know’ and understand about dementia as we develop new skills to better support and help. We will start with our approach, our cues, and our ability to connect. Then we will work on hands on ways of communicating and assisting with daily life and in times of distress. By the completion of the session, learners will have new tools that will be applied throughout the rest of the workshop.

Methods of teaching: 

All sections will use a combination of lecture, discussion, role play, group interaction, case discussion, and problem-solving among learners to actively engage learners in the content. A DVD training disk, handouts, power point presentation, and role playing will be used throughout the session.

Objectives:

1. Learners will describe the six key components that contribute to the behaviors seen throughout the     progression of dementia
2. Learners will compare and contrast cues that people with dementia provide that indicate the most common 10 unmet needs that lead to distress or challenging behaviors as the disease progresses
3. Learners will describe effective combinations of multi-modal helping techniques when presented with someone with dementia at various levels of impairment, emphasizing use of their abilities that are preserved.
4. Learners will recognize the value of consistent positive reinforcement and active programming to promote well-being in reducing challenging behaviors throughout the disease process.
5. Learners will use a structured and organized approach to recognizing and coping with challenging behaviors by meeting needs and intervening early and often with at-risk individuals on a regular basis.

Instructor:   Teepa L. Snow, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA

        Dementia care and Training Specialist. Positive Approach, LLC
        Consulting Associate, Duke University, School of Nursing
        Clinical Faculty, UNC-CH, School of Medicine

As one of America’s leading educators on dementia, Teepa Snow has developed a dementia care philosophy reflective of her education, work experience, medical research, and first hand caregiving experiences.  She is a graduate of Duke University, and received her MS degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.  As an Occupational Therapist with over 38 years of experience in geriatrics, she has worked as the OT Director in a head injury facility, a clinical specialist in geriatrics for a Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, and a Restorative Care Coordinator for a long term care facility.  Her hands on caregiving experiences include providing direct care in home health, assisted living, long term care, and rehabilitation settings. Teepa also served as the Director of Education and Lead Trainer for the Eastern N.C. Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, and as a clinical associate professor at UNC’s School of Medicine, Program on Aging.