Creating moments of Joy by Jolene Brackey
One of the most frustrating tasks for activity staff is to really engage clients with dementia.
Here are some of the issues whether it in a residential home or community centre.
What do you do with a client who constantly says, “I want to go home!”, “Who are you?”, “Where are my children?”
Other typical issues -the client will not get off the bus to enter the daycentre, becomes aggressive at bath time, and presents difficulties using the toilet.
Jolene goes through many of these issues and turns the problems around to make joyful satisfying moments for the clients. Her suggestions are based on practical experience over many years and are just common sense. All her ideas are based on validating the clients’ feelings and working with those feelings. She also validates the carer family or staff member’s feelings dealing with issues. One pertinent example is -when a visiting daughter does not try to make her mother remember her but just comes in saying “Hi nice to see you…………”without the use of names or relationships.
This book is very readable and practical and a great tool for all staff who work with people who are living with dementia. I commend this book to care staff, students and recreation staff.
You can borrow this book from the AANSW library.
You need to join Alzheimer’s Australia to borrow books but it is money well spent.