Contact us for registration or more information
Building Your Skills for Dementia Care: Person Centered Approach
This two-day workshop is designed to train you, the caregiver, to provide care to persons with Alzheimer’s Disease
or related disorders. The two sessions consist of a total of six modules covering the following topics:
About Dementia
Making Connections
Environment and Safety
Reducing Pain
Enhancing Mealtime
Activities For Individuals With Dementia
Presenter: Trainer designated by the Alzheimer's Association Southeastern Virginia Chapter
Target Audience: All who work with the elderly
Length: 12 hours (2 days, 6 hours each) Must attend both days
Special Care for Special Persons:
Basic Skill Building for Caregivers of People with Cognitive Impairment
Many of you have asked us to offer a short course for direct care staff that care for persons with dementia. To meet this requirement, we are proud to host this workshop for the Alzheimer’s Association. At the completion of the workshop, participants should be able to:
Recognize the symptoms of cognitive impairment, and differentiate between irreversible and treatable dementias and their causes.
Demonstrate an understanding of what is required for a cognitive impairment work-up.
Show an understanding of and be able to use the Reisberg scale to identify the stages and progression of cognitive impairment.
Use special communication skills to enhance interactions with people with dementia.
Demonstrate methods for managing and reducing challenging behaviors.
Identify and alleviate safety risks to persons with cognitive impairment.
Presenter: Trainer designated by the Alzheimer's Association Southeastern Virginia Chapter
Target Audience: All who work with the elderly
Length: 4 hours
Emergency Care for Elderly Persons
Normally, when you encounter an emergency, you call 9-1-1. Often the emergency crew arrives quickly, but sometimes they are delayed. It is also possible that the “emergency” doesn’t require calling 9-1-1. In any situation and regardless of your setting, do you know…
Signs and symptoms that may be indicators of an emergency?
Know when to call 9-1-1 and what to report to the emergency dispatcher?
Know when to report to your supervisor or when you can handle a situation yourself?
What to do or not to do before the emergency crew arrives?
How potential emergencies are different for older persons than for other age groups and why?
This workshop will cover the above situations, discussing the following potential emergencies:
Breathing Difficulties
Cardiac Emergencies
Possible Stroke
Diabetic Issues
Bleeding Emergencies
Food Poisoning
Wrong Medication Or Overdose
Choking
Brakes, Strains And Sprains
Heat and Cold Emergencies
This is not a First Aid or CPR class, but a class focusing on the special issues when providing care to elderly persons.
Presenter: Robyn Bolick, BS, EMT and CPR Instructor
Target Audience: Anyone caring for or living with an elderly person
Length: 6 hours
Regardless of your setting, you may work with older persons who seem anxious. Perhaps they say that they are "nervous" or their behavior demonstrates that they are very uneasy about something. After completion of this workshop, you should have a better understanding of what anxiety is, and how to recognize it. Most importantly, you can learn interventions that help minimize the effects of anxiety. In this workshop you can learn:
What anxiety is and is not
The difference between acute and chronic anxiety
Interrelatedness of anxiety and other disorders, both physical and emotional
Interrelatedness of anxiety with certain situations/events
To recognize the different levels of anxiety
Interventions to assist persons to manage their anxiety at all levels
Presenter: Patricia A. Campbell, APRN, BC, Clinical Nurse Specialist
Target Audience: All who work with the elderly
Length: 5 hours
Caring for Depressed Elderly Persons
Have you ever worked with older persons who seem very unhappy, complaining a lot about their health without apparent reason, or simply seem to have lost their zest for life? Have you ever wondered if this is just normal aging, response to a difficult event, or a true depression? Did you ever want to know what you can do to make that person's life better? If your answers are "Yes," then this workshop is for you. The following topics will be covered:
Differentiating between loss/grief reaction and depression
Signs and symptoms of depression in older persons
How to create a supportive environment for the depressed person
How to interact with the person in a supportive manner
Warning signs when you should notify a mental health professional
Suicide watch and prevention
Presenter: Patricia A. Campbell, APRN, BC, Clinical Nurse Specialist
Audience: All who are interested in the topic
Length: 5 hours
Adapting Arts & Crafts for Different Occasions
You are constantly challenged to come up with activities for your residents that are interesting enough to hold their attention, meet their individual needs and functioning levels, and are within your usually slim budget. While you are probably a very creative person, you will welcome any opportunities to refresh your creativity and get new ideas. If all of this fits, this workshop is for you! We will briefly cover how to
evaluate the therapeutic needs of your residents and meet them through your activities
find resources for new ideas and suppliers for needed material
budget for these activities
However, the majority of the workshop time will be spent on
making different simple craft projects
adapting them for varying occasions
discovering ways to include the projects that your residents made into activities that are not arts and crafts related.
You will take your projects back to your facility so you’ll have samples for future use.
Presenter:Nellie Coleman, MEd, Director Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services, and Staff
Target Audience: Activity staff and others who work with the elderly
Length: 5 hours
While your current focus may be on the activities for the upcoming Holidays, you still need to plan for year-round holiday activities. Although holidays offer themselves readily for many arts and crafts projects, your activity program still needs to meet the individual interests of your residents, and fulfill the therapeutic goals you have set for the residents that you are working with. This workshop can help you with:
planning and developing an annual activity schedule that incorporates holidays
budgeting for these activities
finding resources for new ideas and suppliers for needed material
evaluating the therapeutic needs of your residents and meeting them through your holiday activities
sparking your creativity with fresh ideas from the presenters and fellow participants
You will make most of the projects discussed in the workshop and will take your projects back to your facility so you’ll have samples for future use.
Presenter: Nellie V.Coleman, MEd
Target Audience: Activity staff and others who work with the elderly
Length: 5 hours
Motivating Residents to Stay Involved in Activity Programs
It is sometimes challenging to keep residents motivated to attend and stay involved in activity programs. Perhaps the most important elements in meeting this challenge are: make activities meaningful for residents, help residents to focus on remaining ability vs. disability, and use activities as a tool to improve residents’ quality of life. This requires that the residents can use current skills and that previous skills and interests are accommodated. In this workshop participants can gain the necessary skill to:
Assess residents for current and previous skills, interests, and activities.
Help residents to use these skills by offering simple activities that will help to
enhance the residents’ self esteem and give a sense of inclusion
remove focus from disability onto preserved abilities
reduce boredom and frustration
Allow residents and staff to be creative with meaningful and purposeful activities.
Presenter: Nellie Coleman, MEd, Director Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services
Target Audience: Activity staff and others who work with the elderly
Length: 4 hours
Coping With Parkinson's Disease
According to the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, over one million people suffer from Parkinson’s Disease (PD). The disabling effects of the illness represent challenges for the patients and their caregivers. This workshop is designed to increase caregivers’ understanding of the disease and help them to provide the best possible care for the patients, regardless of the caregiving setting. The following topics will be covered:
What PD is and what it is not
Primary and secondary symptoms and how they influence daily functioning
Promoting the patient’s independence in the areas of communication, nutrition, grooming, and exercise
Use of assistive devices & safety considerations
Coping with mental health issues faced by patients such as decreased self-esteem, depression, and dementia
Medication Management of PD
Dosage
Medication compliance issues
Management of side effects
Special medication considerations
Future trends in medication development for PD
The role of surgery in PD
Research developments
Presenters: Miriam Hirsch, MS, RN, Nurse Coordinator, Movement Disorders Program, VCU Medical Center, Department of Neurosurgery
Target Audience: All persons interested in the topic
Length: 3 hours
Aggressive Behavior in the Elderly: Prevention and Management
Of all the possible behavior problems that may be seen in elderly persons living in a residential setting, aggressive behavior is perhaps the most troubling to staff, other residents, families and friends. Yet, when we dig a little deeper into just what aggressive behavior is, we often learn that descriptions are vague, and what one person perceives as aggressive, another may just call an annoyance. Obviously, this leads to inconsistent reactions to the aggressive behavior and possibly to reinforcement of residents’ undesired actions. This workshop is designed to help staff in long-term care settings to:
clearly define aggressive behavior
recognize the origins of such behavior and what may be maintaining it
systematically measure aggressive behavior
understand the HEAR approach
effectively intervene using the above approach.
The workshop will focus on prevention of aggressive behavior and behavioral interventions. Physical interventions will not be covered.
Presenter: Andrew L. Heck, PsyD, ABPP, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Target Audience: All who work with the elderly
Length: 5 hours
According to the National Institute of Health, it is estimated that as many as 6.8 million people in the United States have dementia, and the most common form auf of dementia is Alzheimer’s Disease. However, there are many other disorders that can cause dementia or present with dementia- like symptoms. Each disorder has distinct features that require customized interventions. In this workshop, we will cover:
Alzheimer’s Disease
Vascular dementia
Lewy body dementia
Frontotemporal dementia
Dementia secondary to Parkinson’s Disease
Reversible conditions that can cause dementia- like symptoms
The focus of the session will be on:
Recognizing cognitive and functional signs of dementia
Behavioral manifestations of the different types of dementia
Implications for caregivers
Practical tips how to care for persons with dementia
We will also briefly cover the most current research in the area of dementia.
Presenter: Andrew L. Heck, PsyD, ABPP, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Target Audience: All who work with the elderly
Length: 6 hours
Therapeutic Communication with the Elderly
As caregivers, we are constantly challenged to find an interaction style that works with our residents. At its best, we and the residents can express clearly what is needed, each side clearly hears what the other side has to say, and we will bring the interaction to a conclusion that is satisfactory to all parties involved. However, residents and staff alike bring issues into every interaction that can hinder the success of the interaction. This workshop is designed to help caregivers:
have a raised awareness of issues that may get in the way of therapeutic and effective interaction
deal with these issues in a productive manner
develop a flexible interaction style that will allow them to adjust to residents with various cognitive and functioning levels and the situation on hand.
This workshop goes well beyond a basic communication workshop; its focus will be on special issues when working with cognitively and otherwise impaired residents.
Presenter: Andrew L. Heck, PsyD, ABPP, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Target Audience: All who work with the elderly
Length: 6 hours
Pitfalls of Behavior Management Plans: How to Recognize & Fix Them
Some elderly person in various settings display problematic behaviors that need to be addressed. You may have tried behavior management plans, but the results were not exactly what you expected. While behavior management principles look initially simple, they can be challenging and sometimes have pitfalls that can sabotage your best efforts. In this workshop, you can learn to recognize potential problems with your behavior management plan and how to fix them. The following topics will be addressed after the presenter gives you a brief review of behavior principles:
Administrative issues, such as staffing levels; regulations, standards and policies that can have an impact on behavior plans; ethical and cultural issues
How to know when "to hold and when to fold" when things seem to be getting worse
Assessment issues, such as problematic definitions or misidentification of reinforcers
Problems with application of the plan, such as poor communication or documentation concerns and inconsistencies.
Presenter: Andrew L. Heck, PsyD, ABPP, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Target Audience: Staff who have developed Behavior Management plans
Length: 5 hours
The DSM IV is a useful tool to aid in diagnosing mental illness. However, it also has shortcomings. These may include a false sense of accuracy, being used as a checklist of symptoms, or simply locking its users into the DSM way of thinking. This can be especially troubling when diagnosing elderly persons. They may present with complexities such as coexisting physical and mental illness, a less direct communication style, or their symptoms are described with varying degrees of accuracy by others for them.
While the DSM is a good starting point, you want to go beyond this tool when assessing the elderly. In this workshop you will learn about alternatives to the DSM. These additional tools, combined with your already strong knowledge base, can assist you in formulating a comprehensive diagnosis and securing the optimal treatment for those you serve.
The following topics will be covered:
Review of the core aspects of common mental illnesses in the elderly, including dementia
Alternatives to DSM criteria
Preventing vague diagnosis or under- diagnosing
Being specific without over-diagnosing
Communicating important observations
Supporting conclusions objectively.
You will have opportunities to practice the learned material through case examples.
Presenter: Andrew L. Heck, PsyD, ABPP, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Target Audience: Mental Health Practitioners and others who assess the elderly
Length: 4 hours
When working with elderly persons, have you encountered behaviors or moods that you don’t quite understand? Were you ever wondering if this is normal aging or maybe a sign of mental illness? Have you wished you knew more about mental illness?
This workshop can help you to shed some light on these questions by covering the following topics:
Typical signs and symptoms of the mental disorders listed below.
How behavioral manifestations of mental illnesses can differ in an older population compared to younger people.
Implications for caregivers, including planning and dealing with behaviors that are based on the mental illnesses covered in this workshop.
The following topics will be covered: Mood Disorders (including Depression and Bipolar Disorder), Anxiety Disorder, Adjustment Disorder, Schizophrenia and other Psychotic Disorders, Somatoform Disorder, Personality Disorder.
Presenter: Andrew Heck, Psy.D., ABPP, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Target Audience: All who want to understand more about the topic
Length: 6 hours
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM IV) is a widely used tool to diagnose mental disorder. Thus, understanding the multiaxial system covered in the DSM IV, and how to apply this system is crucial to anyone working in the mental health field. This workshop is designed to assist staff new to the field to increase their skills in using the DSM IV. Those who need to refresh their skills may also benefit. Participants will have opportunities to practice the learned skills through case examples.
Prerequisites: Those who wish to attend should have at least a basic understanding of what the DSM IV is. Please bring a copy of the DSM IV to class.
Presenter: Steve Herrick, PhD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Target Audience: Users of the DSM or those who need to understand it
Length: 6 hours
Assessing and Documenting for Risk of Harm to Self or Others
Mental Health Professionals and other staff who have a responsibility for client/patient evaluation know that the assessment for risk of harm to self or others (suicide, homicide, aggression) is not always easy. Furthermore, documenting the risk can be "tricky" even for experienced practitioners, especially considering the possible personal and legal consequences of these decisions. This workshop is designed to increase your knowledge and skills in these areas. The following topics will be covered, utilizing case examples when appropriate:
Exploring the duty to warn vs duty to protect
Interpreting the Virginia Statute for Mental Health Professionals regarding these duties
Understanding the two predominant research models regarding harm assessment
Developing and documenting a formal plan to manage the risk for harm
Documenting strategies to help you effectively meet Standards of Practice criteria
Presenter: Steve Herrick, PhD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Target Audience: Case Managers, Counselors, Nurses, Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Social Workers, and Others Who Have a Responsibility for Risk Assessment
Length: 5 hours
When Mental Disorders Cause Challenging Behaviors: Effective Strategies for Caregivers
Are there times when your residents seem to lash out for no apparent reason? Does it seem that some residents constantly refuse to cooperate despite your best efforts? While dementia can often be the cause of such problems, a wide range of other mental disorders may be interfering with elderly residents’ thinking, behavior, and communication. While you are not responsible for diagnosing the problem or providing treatment, it is important to recognize and report behaviors that may be the product of underlying mental disorders. By using effective observation and communication skills, you have the ability to significantly improve the situation when problem behaviors occur. This workshop is designed to provide you with a basic understanding of mental disorders that may lead to problem behaviors and strategies that you can use to manage and support your residents effectively. We’ll cover the following topics:
Recognizing behaviors in residents that may be signs of mental disorder
Strategies for creating a therapeutic relationship with your residents
How teamwork between direct care staff and mental health professionals enhances your ability to care for residents
The importance of reporting your observations and determining when to ask for help
Presenter: Patricia L. Hooker, PhD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Forensic Coordinator
Target Audience: Anyone caring for elderly persons
Length: 5 hours
Leading an Exercise Program for the Elderly
Several studies have suggested that exercise programs for older persons have positive results, including:
Older persons, even those with advanced impairments, show marked improvement in mobility, balance, strength, endurance, flexibility and overall physical and sometimes even mental functioning once they exercise regularly.
These improvements have a big impact on independence and help prevent falls.
Strengthening exercises bring excellent benefits.
It is never too late to start regular exercise.
However, exercise programs for older persons, especially for those living in residential facilities, must be adapted for that specific population. This workshop is designed to help you develop and implement a basic exercise program that can help your residents to achieve beneficial results. The following topics will be covered:
How to plan, implement, progress and evaluate a basic exercise program
Special safety considerations for the older participants in your program.
Recognizing and dealing with signs of over- exertion
Modifying exercises to meet special needs, such as being chair-bound or having cognitive impairments
Keeping participants motivated while they progress on different levels.
Presenter: Catherine Jones, MA, OTR/L, Occupational Therapists
Target Audience: All who work with the elderly
Length: 5 hours
Stress Management for Caregivers
Stress is a fact of life for most of us. However, working in a health care environment can be especially stressful because our whole self is involved in the caregiving process. Caregivers often fill multiple and sometimes conflicting roles, and they can exhaust their capacity for giving. Also, caregivers are not immune from personal stress. The potential for cumulative stress from professional and personal life requires that we stop here and there, assess our stress levels, and learn how we can manage stress to an acceptable level. In this workshop, participants can gain skills to better handle their stress. The following will be covered:
Gain and understanding of the stress cycle
Identify your personal stress patterns
Identify specific behavioral coping skills to promote management of stress
Create a personal plan of specific strategies and skills
Learn motivating strategies so you follow through with your personal plan.
Presenter: Catherine Jones, MA, OTR/L, Occupational Therapist
Target Audience: All
Length: 4 hours
As Memory Fades, Caregivers’ Challenges Begin
Understanding and Coping With Behaviors Related to Memory Loss
While some people retain good memory well into old age, those residing in long-term care facilities often have physical, sensory or emotional impairments that adversely affect their memory. However, memory doesn’t change abruptly, it is usually a slow process – a fading of memory. And with this fading of memory, behavior changes often occur that may be very challenging to caregivers and sometimes other residents.In this workshop, you can learn how to possibly minimize the occurrences of problematic behaviors, and should they occur, how to handle them. The following topics will be covered:
Minimizing problematic behaviors by controlling "triggers" for residents, such as fatigue, change, overwhelming stimuli or too many demands.
Dealing with special problem behaviors, such as difficulties during bathing, clothing issues, hiding things, excessive fear, refusing assistance, aphasia, story telling or repetitive questions.
Support for the caregiver to better handle the challenge.
Presenter: Shirley Jones, MS, RNCS, Clinical Nurse Specialist
Target Audience: All who work with the elderly
Length: 4 hours
As seasoned activity staff, you may have used games successfully in your programming, but you are ready for a refresher and new ideas. If you are new to the field of activities, you may be wondering how to use games to benefit and motivate the elderly persons you are working with. In this workshop you can learn:
How and when to use games therapeutically or recreationally
How to define and meet goals and objectives for therapeutic game activities
How to adapt games to meet the needs of different residents' functioning levels
How and when to use games and/or musical games alone or combine them
How to evaluate your game activity
Please dress comfortably and be prepared to actively participate in this workshop; you will "play" some of the different games. Also, please be prepared to share your successful activities with other participants.
Presenters: Elizabeth Lucas. CTRS, Recreational Therapist & Jennifer Szurek, MT, Music Therapist
Target Audience: Activity Staff
Length: 5 hours
According to the University of North Carolina School of Medicine website, elderly persons make up 13% of the population but account for almost 30% of all prescribed drugs. Additionally, they may take non-prescription medications. In short, most elderly people take many medications, and if you work with the elderly population, you need to understand medication issues. In this workshop, you can learn:
The effects of age-related changes on pharmacokinetics (absorption, distribution and elimination of medications)
Which medications are commonly used for certain disorders or symptoms
expected therapeutic effects
expected side effects
side effects that need to be reported immediately vs. during the next visit
possible problems when mixing prescribed and over-the-counter medications
Pros and cons of different dosage forms
Medication adherence (compliance) issues
Presenter: Frank Lucas, RPh, Director of Pharmacy Services
Target Audience: All who work with the elderly
Length: 4 hours
Getting Older: What You Should Know About It
According to the Administration on Aging, "the older population – persons 65 years or older – numbered 35.6 million in 2002.... They represent.... about one in every eight Americans." Comparing the number of people who turned 65 in 2002 to the number of persons over 65 who died in that year, America had a net increase of nearly 250,000 older persons just in that one year alone.
But we don’t need statistics to tell us that America is getting older; we see it every day. Whether you are a pastor, a bank teller, a police officer, a teacher, a store clerk, a caregiver, an adult child or an older person yourself, you increasingly deal with older persons who live, work, and play in your community.
When interactions take a course differently from what you are expecting, you may ask yourself whether it is the age of the person or something else. Additionally, you are also getting older every day, and you may be wondering if what you are experiencing is normal or cause for concern.
This workshop is designed to give you a basic overview of normal aging. The three domains of physical, psychological and social aging will be covered. Economic issues, while interacting with the other three domains, will not be covered extensively. The focus of the workshop will be on the implications of normal aging for interactions between younger and older persons.
Presenter: Brigitte E. Pennington, MS
Audience: All who are interested in the topic
Length: 4 hours
Healthy Aging - A Workshop for the Young and the Young at Heart
Barring severe cognitive decline, it is never too late to take control of your own aging. If you are young, you may be able to prevent many problems now and later in your life by living healthy. If you are older, you cannot undo the past, but you still can improve your quality of life by understanding and adapting healthy living.
This workshop is two-fold. You can use the covered material to:
Prevent some problems when you get older by taking charge of your aging now
Teach others (e.g., your residents or families) how to improve their quality of life by adapting a healthier approach to aging.
We will cover the following topics:
Why some people age "better" than others
In the aging process, the role of diet and exercise, attitudes and beliefs, social support and involvement
Healthcare considerations when we get sick
How we cope and adapt to compensate for age-related decline and losses.
Presenter: Brigitte E. Pennington, MS
Audience: All who are interested in the topic
Length: 4 hours
Stress management is like dieting or child rearing: Most of us do it, many of us run into problems with it, and there is much advice about it in magazines, seminars, on the Internet, or from well-meaning people in our circle. So why should you attend this workshop? Here are the four main reasons:
This day will be respite from your stress. We'll try to have a good time.
We will explore the value of various stress relief strategies, and discover why some work better for YOU than others.
We'll focus mainly on putting stress into perspective by approaching it from the "lite" side.
Each facility will receive a video to take home so you can maintain what you have learned in this workshop and have lasting effects from sharing your day with us.
Come dressed for a relaxing day; a funny t-shirt or hat would be good. Leave your cell phone or beeper at home, or at least turn it off, and tell everyone that you are going on a day retreat.
Presenter: Brigitte E. Pennington, MS
Audience: All who are interested in the topic
Length: 4 hours
Managing Challenging Behaviors During ADLs
In your facility, you assist elderly residents who have various physical and mental functioning levels. Residents could be mentally intact, may have mental health issues, dementia or a combination of several problems. Normally, you know what to do when you assist them with their ADLs. But sometimes you encounter some very challenging behaviors from your residents. They can range from resistance and even aggression to severe withdrawal and unreasonable helplessness.
In this workshop you can learn why certain behaviors may occur and strategies to prevent or manage these behaviors during the following ADLs:
Bathing, Grooming
Dressing
Toileting
Eating, Feeding
Bedtime
Presenter: Deirdre Ramirez, RN, MSN
Audience: Direct caregivers to the elderly, and anyone interested in the topic
Length: 4 hours
You are the best nurse aide, housekeeper, maintenance or food service worker, and your facility recognized you by putting you in charge of the peers you are working with. This is a proud moment in your career, but you also soon learn that supervising others is often difficult. Issues may come up, such as your former peers may expect special privileges from you, may not fully accept your new role or were problem employees before you were promoted into the supervisory position. In this workshop you can learn how to move from the role of peer to supervisor and how to fairly and consistently:
Set job expectations
Motivate employees
Ensure performance
Apply discipline or rewards
Retain good employees
Help improve performance of employees when needed
While we will cover some principles of supervision in this workshop, the focus of the program will be on practicing how to be a supervisor. You will work through case examples, so be prepared to actively participate throughout the workshop.
Presenter: Deirdre Ramirez, RN, MSN
Audience: charge aides and other line level supervisors in departments such as nursing, food service, housekeeping, and maintenance.
Length: 6 hours
Activity Approaches to Managing Behavior Problems in the Elderly
Activity staff often face the challenge of trying to manage problem behaviors that occur in their residents’ day-to-day lives. This task can be made less difficult by finding ways to create activities that address the specific behavior needs of residents. In utilizing this approach, it is essential to consider the following:
knowing the residents’ problem areas
understanding why behaviors occur
designing or adapting activities that take the residents’ problem areas into account
communicating with non-activity staff what works or doesn’t work with particular residents.
In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to learn how to meet these challenges, especially how to customize activities for residents with the following problem behaviors:
Depressive behaviors (withdrawing, lack of participation)
Agitation
Pacing/Wandering
Refusal to participate or demand for control
Aggression (physical or verbal)
Loud, obnoxious behaviors
Attention seeking, complaining & whining
Overreacting
Presenter: Candace T. Rather, CTRS, Recreation Therapy Supervisor
Audience: Activity staff and others who work with the elderly
Length: 5 hours
Adapting Activities For Your Elderly MALE Population
Activity staff have the challenge to make their programs specific to individual preferences and functioning levels. Additionally, they must take their residents’ genders into consideration to make activities attractive for males and females. All of this needs to be accomplished within often limited resources. Many of you have told us that it is especially difficult to create male activities or adapt existing ones to a male population. In this workshop you can explore:
Activities especially suited for your male population
Adapting gender neutral activities to be gender specific in mixed groups
Evaluate which activities are best in a mixed or gender specific group
Tips and tricks to make activities more attractive to the males in the group
This is a hands-on workshop, and you will try out some of the discussed activities to get a "feel" for the adaptations. Please be prepared to actively participate throughout the program.
Presenter: Candace Rather, CTRS and Elizabeth Lucas, CTRS
Audience: Activity staff
Length: 4 hours
Adapting Activities for Residents With Lower Functioning Abilities
Creating activities for your residents who have severely decreased physical or mental abilities is challenging. You may also have difficulties determining whether the activities you offer are meaningful to your residents because they appear unable to let you know, and you may mistakenly conclude that your efforts are futile; you may even get discouraged. This workshop is conducted by two therapists who work on a daily basis with patients who have very limited abilities, and the presenters will share their approaches and experiences with you. We hope and expect that you will also share your experience and knowledge, so be prepared to be actively involved throughout the workshop. The following topics will be covered:
Approaches to working with a lower functioning population, including
Setting realistic goals for your residents and yourself
Environment
Communication
Group structure
Evaluating results of your activities
Discussion and interactive examples of activities that have the best chance
of success with your lower functioning residents, including how to best
utilize music
Adaptations for group members who have a higher functioning level
Presenter: Candace Rather, CTRS and Rebecca McCue, MT-BC
Audience: Activity staff
Length: 4 hours
Utilizing the Power of Music When Working with Persons in the Middle and Late Stages of Dementia
Research has repeatedly demonstrated that persons with cognitive impairments, including dementia, appear to respond well to music even after many other abilities are lost. And the good news is that anyone working with persons in any stage of dementia can use this tool; you don't need to be musically trained. However, you should understand why and how to use these powerful strategies to get the desired results. In this workshop you can learn:
Theories why music often stays with us during our entire life span
Benefits of using music when working with persons with dementia
Strategies involving music with persons who are in the middle to late stages of dementia
Objectives for your selected strategies
Involving the whole care team in the music approach
How to evaluate whether your strategy is getting the desired results
Be prepared to be involved during this workshop by experiencing some of the discussed activities.
Presenter: Staff
Audience: All who are interested in the topic
Length: 5 hours
Personality Disorders in the Elderly: Working With Some Of Your Most Challenging Residents
Wonder why you just can't seem to get along with some residents, no matter what you try? It could be that you're not the only one. In fact, it could be that this patient has a personality disorder which impacts not only your relationship, but most of their relationships. Ever get curious as to why they are the way they are? While this workshop cannot teach you how to diagnose and treat personality disorders, you can learn how to improve the care you provide for persons who may have such a disorder. The presenter will first discuss
What personality disorders are
Where they come from
What they look like
How they manifest in the elderly
The remainder of the workshop will be on
How to work with persons who may have personality disorder:
How to use empathy to both your resident’s and your advantage
How to set boundaries
How to use predictability and consistency
How to assess the resident for risk of harm to self and others and when to ask for help
How to take care of yourself so you can give your best when working with difficult residents.
Presenter: Lindsey Slaughter, Psy. D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Audience: Anyone interested in the topic
Length: 4 hours
You probably agree that having good relationships with the families or other significant persons of your residents is very important. It benefits the residents because families will be more involved with them. It benefits your facility because it enhances reputation. It benefits you because you will work in a more pleasant atmosphere and you have the satisfaction of a job well done.
However, sometimes families talk to you only when they have a complaint or they show little interest or involvement with the resident. While some complaints may be legitimate and need corrections, others are a result of issues that may not be apparent immediately. In this workshop you will explore how to develop the best possible relationship with families. The following topics will be covered:
Exploring why situations can become difficult
Understanding what families need
How to assist families through
Support
Communication
Delegation
Education
Administrative considerations