Communication and relationship difficulties are among the most frustrating aspects of caring for older adults with dementia. Overcome these challenges using the compassionate and empathetic techniques of the Validation approach. Pioneered by social worker Naomi Feil more than 40 years ago, Validation has helped families and professional caregivers improve communication, sidestep conflict, and maintain connections by validating expressed feelings rather than by focusing on an older adult's confusion.
The Validation Breakthrough is an essential resource for all settings providing dementia care including assisted living facilities, nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, hospice, home health care, adult day services, family care settings, and more.
"Validation is a successful way of communicating with older adults with Alzheimer's-type dementia and responding to their challenging behaviors. The Validation method helps reduce stress, enhance dignity, and increase happiness for both the elder and the caregiver. Since its inception in 1989, Validation has helped thousands of professional and family caregivers improve their relationships with residents and loved ones with dementia by acknowledging older adults' expressed feelings rather than focusing on disorientation and confusion. Professionals learn how to: build relationships with residents based on empathy and compassion; understand and deal with challenging behaviors ; interpret nonverbal cues to promote better communication; and implement Validation in your own care setting through the experiences shared by Authorized Validation Organizations around the world. The Validation method is easy to learn, and positive results can be seen in both residents and caregivers. Residents express less anger and anxiety, decreasing the need for chemical and physical restraints. Residents communicate more freely and more often. Residents often move better and experience an improved sense of self-worth. Staff members express a greater sense of fulfillment at work and feel better prepared for handling difficult situations. Families visit more often. The Validation Breakthrough is an essential resource for professionals in all settings serving adults who may be confused and disoriented, including assisted living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, hospice, home health care, adult day services, and family care settings"--
This book tells how to help disoriented old-old people. It teaches those who care for and about disoriented old-old how to: recognize the signs of disorientation, the physical, emotional and social factors leading to confusion, and how to help confused old- old in each stage.The book helps caretakers feel comfortable with disoriented old-old. "There is logic behind the bizarre behavior," writes Naomi Feil, who originated Validation® Therapy in 1963. She helps nursing homes throughout the world implement this therapy to prevent further disorientation and restore dignity.
This book was written for those who care for or care about disoriented elderly. Validation helps helpers become comfortable with disoriented elderly who freely express their feelings. The method is designed to help caretakers understand where the person is, the reason behind their feelings, and helps the disoriented person reach their personal goals.
Challenges conventional perceptions about Alzheimer's disease to offer readers alternative approaches to memory loss and aging that can be aided through simple nutritional and exercise strategies.
As the largest generation in U.S. history - the population born in the two decades immediately following World War II - enters the age of risk for cognitive impairment, growing numbers of people will experience dementia (including Alzheimer's disease and related dementias). By one estimate, nearly 14 million people in the United States will be living with dementia by 2060. Like other hardships, the experience of living with dementia can bring unexpected moments of intimacy, growth, and compassion, but these diseases also affect people's capacity to work and carry out other activities and alter their relationships with loved ones, friends, and coworkers. Those who live with and care for individuals experiencing these diseases face challenges that include physical and emotional stress, difficult changes and losses in their relationships with life partners, loss of income, and interrupted connections to other activities and friends. From a societal perspective, these diseases place substantial demands on communities and on the institutions and government entities that support people living with dementia and their families, including the health care system, the providers of direct care, and others. Nevertheless, research in the social and behavioral sciences points to possibilities for preventing or slowing the development of dementia and for substantially reducing its social and economic impacts. At the request of the National Institute on Aging of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America assesses the contributions of research in the social and behavioral sciences and identifies a research agenda for the coming decade. This report offers a blueprint for the next decade of behavioral and social science research to reduce the negative impact of dementia for America's diverse population. Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America calls for research that addresses the causes and solutions for disparities in both developing dementia and receiving adequate treatment and support. It calls for research that sets goals meaningful not just for scientists but for people living with dementia and those who support them as well. By 2030, an estimated 8.5 million Americans will have Alzheimer's disease and many more will have other forms of dementia. Through identifying priorities social and behavioral science research and recommending ways in which they can be pursued in a coordinated fashion, Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America will help produce research that improves the lives of all those affected by dementia.
