This workshop will aim to highlight the importance of understanding the impact dementia and related illness has on a person's ability to communicate.   As a result, care partners and care professionals may need to shift their communication and gain insight into the variety of ways individuals living with dementia may communicate.  

Through this workshop, we will look to reframe typical “problem behaviors” sometimes exhibited by individuals living with dementia as expressions of need and explore the myriad ways individuals with dementia commonly communicate their needs, especially as the illness progresses. Participants will explore strategies to proactively meet needs, as well as develop tools to de-escalate and diffuse situations if they arise.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the ways in which dementia can impact a person's ability to communicate.
• Assess how “behaviors” exhibited by individuals with dementia are a method of communication and expressions of need
• Consider the range of physical and emotional needs individuals have and how dementia effects individuals’ abilities to express these needs