Our latest training set is now available in DVD with a photocopiable workbook for multiple uses. Use it for induction, CNE points (6 points) or to upskill your staff.
Topics include:
DISK ONE
1. Working with difficult behaviour
2. Case Study: Beatrice
3. What is behaviour?
4. What motivates human behaviour?
5. Needs-based problem solving
6. Communication
DISK TWO
7. Scheduled visiting
8. Assertive responses
9. Limit setting
10.Behavioural consequences
Have a look at this video of Sir Gerry Robinson made by the BBC. He is a business man who specialises in turning around businesses from failure to success. He looks at what can be done in dementia care in two homes in the UK.
What he finds makes you want to throw your head back and wail in frustration and sadness.
Yet, he finds some signs of hope. The BBC series is broken up into several 15 minute pieces in these video clips telling the story of his journey.
This video is the first of several I will link to in a series of posts over next few days. This will be well worth your time just to see what is being done and what can be done.
Let me know what you think. What is happening in your place? What grabs your attention?
A note of support and concern for all our friends living in the flood affected areas of Queensland. We know many of you will be struggling with your own homes and families affected and also trying to be there for the elders you are caring for who may also be located on flooded areas.
We are thinking of you all and ready to support in any way we can.
Know your distressing situation touches us all.
We wish you speedy recovery to normal life but know it will take months and years for many.
The trauma of this will, like the bushfires of 2009 in Victoria, take tens of years to recover from. Many will be changed by it for the rest of their lives.
You can find out more about how to deal with natural disaster trauma at www.psychology.org.au, the website of the Australian Psychological Society. There is information on how to recognise that you are having a “more than usual reaction” to what is happening, how to communicate well with children about such traumatic events as well as good information for you both for coping now and in the future.
If you are able tell us of your situation.
with best wishes
Bernie
This brilliant video shows just how our wellbeing has improved over 200 years.
What do you think?
to all our readers and customers who have supported the work we do.
Our goal is to create opportunities for older people in care to experience wellbeing and to support those who care for them. You have contributed to that work and we thank you.
We look forward to working with you and stimulating reflection on the person-centred approach to care practice in 2011.
Our office is closed from 24th December and reopening on Tuesday 4th January 2011.
For immediate response and for EAP enquiries we can be contacted on 0408 145 819
Best wishes
Bernie
I have just visited Changi Prison Museum and Chapel in Singapore. I am here for four days to conduct a Dementia Care Mapping course with Virginia Moore in the Lions Home for Elders.
The museum is a very moving chronicle of the tragedy of 1942-1945 in Singapore under the Japanese. I am reminded of the several POWs I have had the privilege to talk to in my time as a psychologist working with people living in nursing homes and hostels in Victoria, Australia., many of whom had dementia and were reliving the horrors of those 3 1/2 years in prison.
Changi was not the only POW camp. 16,000 died on the Thai-Burma railway. Many civilians died in the villages of Singapore and beyond. Stories of heroism and immense suffering in the face of unthinkable cruelty made me numb with the barbarity of some of the things that were done to people. But it still happens if you look at the newspapers and TV. People can be both cruel and wonderful to each other. I was viewing it for a moment in my life but the soldiers and civilians who lived through it endured it for 3 1/2 years not knowing if it would end.
Not all Japanese were cruel. There is the story of the Japanese man who was in Changi prison for spying before the war and was released when the Japanese overtook Singapore, to take up a position with the military government in charge of welfare. He ensured many survived with permits and passes that he did not have to give. Thirty years after the war he was welcomed back by the people who remembered his goodness. There are photographs of two unnamed young Japanese soldiers who gave Vitamin B tablets to soldiers.
Weary Dunlop has demonstrated the way to build bonds of relationship that can overcome fearful anger and resentment. We had the pleasure of hosting a Japanese student a couple of years ago and it was a happy sharing of stories and perspectives that I am sure will build interest and positivity into the future.
I wonder from the safety of my room how I would cope. What would I do? Would I be able to withstand the daily punishments and deprivation. I guess those men and women must have asked themselves similar questions. They were ordinary people much like you and me, asked to do extraordinary things under extraordinary circumstances.
I can only say thanks for the example and the memory of their endurance.
I think of them today and remember the men and women I have come across who have suffered not just physically but now in the course of the progress of dementia find themselves mixing up present and past. Unfortunately their past contains unpleasant memories that confuse and hurt them, causing them to be fearful or angry or afraid. It calls on all my empathy and compassion to try to understand what it must be like to live in that reality again. For many their bodies now look and feel like they did but now due to ageing and the wasting of inactivity rather than starvation and malnutrition. The very weight loss is enough to convince their brains that now is then.
Tell me about your experiences caring for people who have endured the punishments of being a POW.
Have you ever noticed how anxiety gets in the way of expressing yourself fluently? Ever sat in an interview and frozen up to the point you knew you were talking nonsense and couldn’t do a thing about it? You want to say something really important and you clam up, freeze. Words don’t come. Mind numbing silence fills your head. Several minutes later when you are calm the words flow easily and fluently. And you beat yourself up for being so frozen.
Anxiety causes our verbal brain centres to cease working efficiently and it take considerable effort to manage the anxious thoughts that interfere with saying what we want to say. The verbal centres are located not far from the emotional areas in the limbic system of the brain, so emotional upset interferes with verbal expression. When we are relaxed we find the words easily but in front of an audience or in an interview the words are more difficult to produce. Anxiety gets in the way.
The fight or flight syndrome so often talked about is helpful here in understanding why it happens. When we are under threat it is not so helpful to talk your way out of it but more helpful to run or fight. Talking is a relatively modern human ability and our brains haven’t caught up with the effect of thousands of years of running or fighting.
It is worth noting that the anxiety literature also recognises “freezing” as the third option that common let occurs when people become anxious. Some people report such experiences when confronted with overwhelming trauma such as rape or other physical attack. Freezing is our way of staying still and maximising our chance of survival in the face of a marauding foe that is skilled at detecting a moving prey. Freezing can keep you alive.
However, to come back to our theme of the effect of anxiety on verbal skills, freezing can interfere with modern social function when we want to keep talking when we are anxious.
There is useful information on social anxiety on many of the anxiety website via google. One you could try is:
http://www.socialanxietyassist.com.au/
The more relaxed you are the better your words will flow. Several things are important to maximise your fluent speech if you know you are likely to be anxious and you know it may affect your performance:
1. Rehearse what you are going to say on your own. Then do it with a friend whose opinion you value. Ask for feedback. Do it again.
2. if you can visit the location so you are familiar with the situation. Walk up to the podium if you are speaking in front of a group. Check it out.
3. Be clear about the self-talk that chatters in your head. Is it undermining you or helping you? You need reasonable talk that is realistic and balanced. Find a statement that helps you to remain positive and realistic. Avoid being overly positive in your thoughts because that can be just as much of a problem as overly negative thinking.
4. Calm your physical signs of anxiety by breathing slowly and evenly for several minutes at a time. This helps in keeping oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in balance. Over breathing or shallow breathing can make you dizzy.
5. Keep up your usual activity so you avoid disconnecting from the world around you and getting lost in your own head. Phone a friend if need be.
Do you find these suggestions helpful? What do you do to manage anxiety or keep your verbal skills going when you feel anxious?
I have recently been trying to lose weight and get fit with an eye on the next 40 years of my life (currently 53). I wanted to bring down my BSL and my weight and raise my fitness so I could resume running after some decades of virtual inactivity.
I have been going OK with some weight loss and pretty regular running with my dog Bonnie. Today I was inspired to lose whatever age related negativity I had remaining when I read in The Age (Melbourne daily) of two 87 year old men who are riding in this year’s Great Victorian Bike Ride. This ride (Nov 27-Dec5 2010) is 9 days of cycling over 590 kms. These two guys have ridden in this gruelling ride for the past few years and still find the determination and endurance to get ready for it and then do it each year.
If they can do it so can I. I can at least get out of bed more regularly and make a significant effort to get fit again. Maybe even run in a 5 or 10 km run next year. Or even get back in the saddle and ride in the Great Victorian Bike Ride again as I did once in my 30s.
They are an inspiration. Age is no longer relevant in limiting our thinking about what is possible. We know about greater fitness but we also know about brain plasticity. So as we age our brains are still able to produce new neurons and to make new connections between existing neurons. I can learn a new language. I can learn a new skill. I can get fit again.
Nothing is limited by my age. In fact my life experience makes me even better at knowing how to do these things in a more wise manner so I don’t go out and train too hard and tear muscles or injure myself at I might have once.
“I’m too old for that” is no longer a reasonable argument against taking up something new. If we don’t want to take up a new activity we should not blame it on age.
The Mind your Mind or Mind your Brain promotions of the Alzheimers associations in Australia UK and the US have all promoted brain health by eating well, exercising, keeping yourself mentally engaged with life and socialising well.
So I must get out there and take Bonnie for a walk. For her sake as well mine.
What are you doing for yourself to enjoy your life to the full for as long as possible? Tell us about it.
Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
William Cowper
Retirement (1782)
Older people sitting for long periods doing nothing in aged care homes is a stereotypical picture of aged care living. Yet it holds a grain of truth. We make people healthy, clean and well fed and then we bore them to death!
This is the area of aged care that needs most attention. Engagement and occupation in a meaningful life or a “life worth living” is the next frontier for aged care staff and management. It is ironic that in the ACFI it does not have any funding tagged for lifestyle provision.
We maintain the hospital livery we inherited from our forebears. The hospital style of aged care is no longer appropriate for a modern 21st century aged care home. There are too many successful examples of attempts to design aged care homes in a homely and non-institutional décor and organization for us to ignore them anymore. It is no longer acceptable to build homes that are more like warehouses for old people or hospitals for old people. No matter how much nursing care is required there is no need to make a long-stay care environment look like a short-stay nursing environment.
What do you think?
The person centred approach to the care of people living with dementia is now ‘best-practice’. Valuing people regardless of disability, tailoring an individualised approach with respect for the person’s preferences and supporting the social dimension of each person are the cornerstones of this person centred approach.
You can view this DVD/CD set in a flexible way individually or in a group, at home or at work. There is a workbook for those who wish to apply for CNE points or if you just want to improve your skills.
DVD One: 1. What is dementia? 2. Person centred dementia care 3. The enriched model of dementia 4. Five fundamental needs
DVD Two: 5. Behaviours of concern 6. Positive and Negative Staff Care Actions 7. Needs-based Problem Solving
Audio CD: All seven sessions are included in MP3 format for flexible listening on the move.