I earned my trainer certification from the Teepa Snow Positive Approach® to Care (PAC) program in January of 2016. Since that time I have been training the Cambrian Senior Living caregiving team on a regular basis during staff meetings, in addition to occasionally offering more extensive training sessions throughout the year. And, most recently, we began offering a 60 minute weekly training session that takes place over a seven-week timeframe.

We began the first seven-week program as a mandatory educational series to be completed by our memory care team in Tecumseh. Twenty-two staff have attended to date. I made the training available at three different times each week to insure all shifts had a convenient time to work it into their schedules. The times that worked best for our shift changes were at 1pm, 2pm and 10pm. I took the training information outlined by the PAC program and split it up to nicely flow from week to week. Each week I would open the class with an ice breaker that related to our topic, and asked questions such as "if you had dementia and could no longer share with others, what would you want someone to know about you?"

One of the biggest challenges of community life as a person who supports persons living with dementia, is finding activities that can be modified for differing abilities AND making those activities meaningful. Engagement in meaningful activity is so important, yet we find it challenging as our precious gems move into different GEMS states. Here is an activity I facilitated at a community in which I work. We called it "Healing Blankets."

The activity involved tying two pieces of fabric together to create beautiful blankets, then donating those blankets to a local children's hospital.

We have thousands of thoughts streaming past us daily. What thoughts are you noticing right now? Which ones are you hanging on to? A thought is a thought, nothing more. It is given the weight we allow.

 

When we consider our thoughts, it is likely that many are about what happened in the past or what's going to happen in the future. The past is the past and the future is yet to be. What we actually have is this one moment in time.

 

So how might we get to a moment? What happens in a moment? A breath? A smile? A sensation?

 

How might we find one moment of joy?

As I decided to write this article about early onset dementia, two remarkable men came to my mind who were on this journey together with their wives. I met Roger and Mark when I worked at an assisted living community a few years ago. I was amazed at their dedication to their wives: daily visits, participating in activities such as exercises, singing, and outings, and spending time with their families during the holiday events. I recently sat down with Roger and Mark and asked them some questions about their journey and was in awe by their devotion to their wives. The words in the forefront of my mind, "for better, for worse...in sickness and in health" took on a whole new level of commitment.