Alzheimer’s Care
/Taking it to the next level!
The Alzheimer’s Association promotes the Habilitation Method of care for their Alzheimer’s clients. The goal of Habilitation Therapy is to promote a positive response in the person with dementia. It is an approach that maximizes their strengths and abilities and minimizes their limitations. It helps the care giver connect with the client on an emotional level. While other parts of the brain are being ravaged by the disease the emotional center of the brain remains intact. Alzheimer’s clients react and understand from an emotional level. When they are cared for from this perspective difficult behaviors are held in check and most important the persons quality of life improves and is maintained as long as possible.
Anyone who has ever cared for a parent or spouse with Alzheimer’s knows the struggle and pain of watching helplessly as this horrendous disease slowly takes away the person bit by bit. Pathologically the brain is being reduced in size, weight and substance. Somehow their ability to feel and express emotions is left alone. It is through this emotional connection the Habilitation Method can make a difference and help us care for the person; improving their quality of life and those responsible for the persons care.
Habilitation Therapy is not rehabilitation, it focuses on strengths and abilities and does not focus on their limitations or try to teach them what they’ve lost. It has 5 areas of concentration called domains: communication, the physical environment, approach to personal care, purposeful engagement and behavior as communication.
Recently I had the opportunity to train 10 care givers in this approach to care. They’re now as excited as I am in being able to improve the care and quality of life of our Alzheimer’s clients. While it improves the quality of life of our clients it also assists the family members and loved ones struggling with how to best care for their loved one.
The scourge of Alzheimer’s effects a multitude of people; the patient, the spouse, children, friends. The frustration and pain of watching as the person you love deeply is slowly, bit by bit taken from you, the patient initially able to fake it and then slowly receding into their own world of silence and confusion. It has been my goal to try and find a better way, a way to help us relate to our loved one. This Habilitation Therapy offers us a method of care to reach through the haze and confusion and still making a connection.
Jeff Bond CEO
