Evidence-Based Strategies for Clients with Dementia

Lisa Young Milliken, MA, CCC-SLP, FNAP, CDP, RAC- CT

Online Course

Includes all course content in digital format

Prerequisites Required
6 hours - Provided by Summit Professional Education

Item: physi-ONDEMANDGDEMLM1

Description

5.8 million people in the U.S. are living with dementia, and this number is expected to be 3 times greater by 2050. Thus, people with dementia will continue to be a significant part of our therapy caseloads, so it is important that we understand the evidence of how therapy can be most beneficial to these clients. Equally important is the ongoing education for our healthcare team members and our clients' family members. Such evidence promotes the use of each client's unique characteristics, life history, functional abilities, and strength- based approaches. Clinicians who are empowered with the recommended resources and understanding of such strategies will be equipped to make a significant difference in the lives of people who are living with dementia.

This workshop will share comprehensive resources with all participants and include the application of evidence-based research for day to day practical strategies. Each segment will include hands-on approaches and interactive discussion to maximize skills for strategies that can immediately be put into practice. Participants will be able to implement such approaches with their clients at all levels, stages, and types of dementia.

Highlights

  • Cognitive, motor, and psychosocial differences between different types of diseases causing dementia
  • Strength-based tasks and compensatory strategies based on a person's assessed stage of dementia
  • Recommended pain assessments when a person with dementia is non-verbal and is in middle or late stages of dementia
  • Effective mealtime strategies for people living with dementia, who may otherwise be resistant to eating and demonstrating negative behaviors toward food and drink
  • Evidence-based procedural memory-based techniques to improve a person's functional abilities, despite their challenges from progressive loss with the dementia process
  • Interprofessional team approach to incorporate the most optimal non-pharmacological strategies

Learning Objectives

  1. Examine the types and stages of dementia and the respective deficits, abilities, and recommended strategies per stage.
  2. Analyze the expected changes in physical skills per progressive stage of dementia, to support the changing subsequent needs.
  3. Implement effective assessments, analyses, and responses to pain behaviors.
  4. Examine effective mealtime strategies to improve interest in eating and nutritional intake with residents who have dementia.
  5. Demonstrate how the spaced retrieval technique, the errorless learning method, and external strategies may be effective for teaching functional skills for people with memory impairments.
  6. Apply examples of how the most optimal non- pharmacological strategies are the result of first knowing the resident's life story.

Course Content

Evidence-Based Strategies for Clients with Dementia
SCORM Package
Next Steps
Module
  1. Stages of Dementia and the Respective Deficits, Abilities, and Strategies Per Stage
    • Disease processes underlying dementias
    • Cortical vs. subcortical dementias
    • Stages of dementia, with detailed characteristics,abilities, and deficits per stage
    • Adapting activities for residents with dementia
    • Case studies: Determine the optimal tasks and strategies
    • Case Study
  2. Changes in Physical Skills Per Progressive Stage of Dementia
    • Changes in motor and visual skills per stage of dementia
    • Accessing motor memory skills
    • Use of assistive devices
    • Fall management/dementia specific fall risk factors
    • Encouraging movement
    • Practice simulating motor skill changes to remember/recognize such changes with clients
    • Hands-On Lab
  3. Accurately Interpreting Pain Behaviors
    • The American Geriatric Society Panel's Pain Behaviors
    • Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia Scale (PAINAD)
    • Serial trial intervention
    • Document sequential steps of the serial trialintervention
    • Case Study
  4. Effective Mealtime Strategies
    • Research of strategies for improved consumption
    • Recognize needs and strategies for eating with changes in progression
    • Effective practical mealtime strategies
    • Group activities with food and liquids, utilizing learned strategies
    • Hands-On Lab
  5. Spaced Retrieval Training, Errorless Learning Methods,External Strategies, and Multisensory Approaches
    • Spaced retrieval training
    • Errorless learning methods
    • External memory aids
    • Montessori-based sensory approaches
    • Hands-on lab/practice: Spaced retrieval training
    • Hands-On Lab
  6. Optimal Non-Pharmacological Strategies, Based on the Resident's Life Story
    • Non-pharmacological strategies
    • Significant factors of a resident's life story
    • Prior occupation, hobbies, and cultural preferences
    • Likes/dislikes, clothing preferences, food preferences,and preferred routine
    • Develop optimal plans of routines and non- pharmacological strategies to best meet the uniquepreferences of scenarios
    • Hands-On Lab
Lisa Young Milliken, MA, CCC-SLP, FNAP, CDP, RAC- CT has served as a practitioner, regional manager, vice president, consultant, compliance director and education specialist. She has lectured at the state and national level with over 300 professional education courses on topics of importance to the healthcare professional. She is a Certified Dementia Practitioner and has mentored team members across the country in senior retirement communities on clinical programming for the past 30 years. She also volunteers with community programs in the Houston area to support caregivers of family members living with multiple disorders. Lisa is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, where she currently serves as a State Advocate for Medicare Policy for Texas. She is Vice President of Professional Services for the Texas Speech-Language and Hearing Association and serves on the Financial Advisory Committee and the Publications Board of this organization. She is a Distinguished Fellow of Public Policy for the National Academies of Practice where she serves as the Co-Chair of the Forum Planning Committee and is a prior board president of the Louisiana Speech- Language and Hearing Association and an alumnus of the Council of State Association Presidents. Finally, she is a member of the Kingwood- Humble Aggie Mom Board and lives in Houston, Texas.

DISCLOSURES

FINANCIAL: Lisa Milliken is compensated by Summit as an instructor.

NONFINANCIAL: Lisa Milliken is a member of the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) where she serves as the Texas State Advocate for Medicare Policy, for which she receives CMS updates. She is the President-Elect for the Texas Speech-Language Hearing Association (TSHA). She is also a Fellow of Distinguished Public Policy for the National Academy of Practice, which focuses on interprofessional practice and education.

Click here to check accreditation for this course.

Share This Course