Embracing Their Reality: Making Assisted Living Dementia-Friendly Rachael Wonderlin, MS Dementia By Day, LLC

Making Assisted Living Communities Dementia-Friendly Step One: Understand Dementia Step Two: Change Your Verbal & Physical Communication Step Three: Change Their Environment Step Four: Change Your Expectations

Understand Dementia, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Delirium Step One Understand Dementia, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Delirium

What is dementia, anyway? Cognitive loss over time, an umbrella term for over 50-70+ different types of illnesses, including… Alzheimer’s Lewy Body Vascular Frontotemporal Lobar (FTD) Other types to know

What is Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)? Mild Cognitive Impairment is a slight, but noticeable decline in memory and other cognitive functions The person with MCI is aware of the changes and other people may be, too MCI does not always lead to dementia MCI sometimes reverts to normal cognition or remains stable

What is Delirium? Delirium is different from dementia and MCI Delirium is a sudden onset of confusion and cognitive impairment It is a sign that something else is wrong!

Change the way that you communicate verbally Step Two Change the way that you communicate verbally

Make or break positive dementia care EMBRACE THEIR REALITY Make or break positive dementia care

Change the environment Step Three Change the environment

What your residents’ family members are dealing with…

Change your expectations Step FOUR Change your expectations

Activities

Contact Me: rachael@dementiabyday.com www.dementiabyday.com www.designingfordementia.com www.rachaelwonderlin.com