Category Archives: dementia

Validation – the key to healthy relationships

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Validation theory has been around for a few decades now thanks to the work of Naomi Feil who is featured in the YouTube video in this post among many others.

Check out her work with Mrs Wilson. The transformation of this withdrawn lady is remarkable.

Validation is the respectful acceptance of the emotional and thought reality of each person. We engage in validation when we understand someone else and communicate that understanding successfully to them so they say, “Yep that’s it. That’s how it feels for me!” This is how we need to relate in our relationships at home with those we love, with our colleagues at work, with the people we care for at work, and especially with the people in our care who are unable to communicate their reality in words. We rely on our empathy and compassion to understand their reality. Sometimes its guess work but each time we try we come a little closer to understanding and so being able to respond and provide exactly what they need from us to be OK, to feel wellbeing.

Enjoy the videos of Naomi Feil.

Assistive technology for people with dementia

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Around the world there is an increasing focus on finding ways to support people with AD and others dementias to live in their homes and enjoy their lives for as long as they can.

Recent developments include using movement monitoring equipment that we have in our own homes to enable people with dementia to remain safe. These sensors  can also help researchers understand the pattern of movements that are characteristic of each person and then look for changes in regular movement patterns that may predict illness conditions such as heart attacks.

GPS technology has also been combined with GSM mobile phone technology to enable people who are lost to be found quickly. This is major step forward in providing an unobtrusive and secure environment of security for the person with dementia. Boundary alerts can enable people living at home or in residential care to be found quickly, avoiding the distressing experience of being confused and alone in a strange environment for the person with dementia.

Computers in homes are being used to help people stay in touch with relatives via skype and touchscreen icon photos of the people they want to talk to. They are also being programmed with games and other forms of cognitive stimulation to support the person’s cognitive function.

This is only a small taste of the use of the technology that is available in experimental form and in some cases practically available today.

Exercise, memory and dementia

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Exercise is good for you and it helps to put off the effects of dementia if you’ve got it.

A neat study presented to day at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Hawaii compared the effects of doing Tai Chi, Slow or Fast Walking and Social interaction. They found that there was no improvement on cognition for the Slow Walking group But there was an increase in cognition for all other groups and biggest improvement was for the Tai Chi group. Next were the Fast Walkers.

They also measured brain volume and found that after 8 months Tai Chi increased brain volume most out of all groups with Fast walkers next.

This is an important result as it shows just how an activity like Tai Chi which uses both physical movement and thinking, memory for patterns, concentration and visualising to complete a complex series of movements is better than simple exercise that does not require cognitive effort.

What does this mean for middle aged and older people? Engage in something that is going to exercise your brain as well as your body. The aerobic exercise is good but the mind-body task of Tai Chi is much better.

The increase in brain volume is another support for the plasticity of the brain – the brain can grow new connections, and build new growth to support new challenges. That’s the way we learn and our brain can do it.

New book contract – Hearing the person with dementia

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I have just signed a contract to write a book on communication with people living with dementia with Jessica Kingsley Publishers in the UK. The book is almost finished and will likely be out in 2011.

It will have a person-centred focus on valuing the person in your communication and attending to those small and meaningful signs that tell us what the person means when they no longer have words at their disposal. It will also address teh practicalities of communicating in times of difficulty, when stress is high between you and the other person both in residential and in community home care situations.

I will give you notice when it is launched.

Early diagnosis of dementia

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The National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association of the USA have collaborated to produce the first revision of the diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer’s Disease in 25 years. This revision was necessary to keep up with the changes in knowledge of the disease and its biomarkers many of which were not known or understood 25 years ago.

The revision has introduced Preclinical AD as a category now that research is able identify early signs of the disease process with biomarkers such as genes including APOE4, plaques of amlyoid beta and the protein tau which is associated with neurofibrillary tangles. This category will allow researchers to identify people at risk of developing signs of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and then AD itself. Not everyone who has these early signs of memory loss or other problems with thinking will go on to develop MCI or AD. And this is one of the important reasons for trying to understand the way this underlying disease process works and what other factors might make it worse or prevent it developing. Researchers have found that healthy diet, exercise and stimulating cognitive activity all reduce the risk of AD. So its a matter of trying to understand more about the way all of these factors relate together over a lifetime and these new criteria will help to make those connections.

You can view the new diagnostic criteria at www.alz.org/research/diagnostic_criteria