Thursday, February 25, 2016
Opening Plenary Presentation
P01 - Creating a Dementia Capable System
Richard Elbein, CEO, Alzheimer's Association - Houston and Southeast Texas Chapter
Dementia is unlike any other disease in aging care, and providing quality memory care services affects all teams within the organization--from nursing to housekeeping, dining to security.
This presentation will explore the demographics information, national and state policies, and the shocking statistics that are pushing memory care initiatives across the country. Beyond this, learn what a dementia diagnosis means in our care system and our society, and the resources needed to make a community 'dementia capable'.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe the statistics and economic impact of Alzheimer's and dementia on America
- Define 'dementia capable'
- List the top services that may benefit someone with Alzheimer's/dementia
- Identify a list of professions that would benefit from workforce training in dementia care
- Describe the key components of a dementia-friendly community, and the what dementia-friendly care may look like for a variety of communities
Track: Administrative and Executive
E01 - Staffing for Memory Care
Dayne DuVall, LMT, CAEd, CRTS, Chief Operating Officer, National Certification Board for Alzheimer Care
Aysha Kuhlor, RN, BA, CDONA/LTC, Founder/CEO: National Council of Post Acute Care Practitioners, Vice-President, NADONA/LTC
Lynn Biot-Gordon, MSW, LNHA, CDP, CADDCT, Client Operations Officer, National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners
Moderator: Pamela Tabar, Editor-in-Chief, Long-Term Living
It takes a specialized, motivated, patient, and highly trained individual to join the staff of a quality memory care unit. Assembling a team of star caretakers starts well beyond the basics, with executive teams and DONs specifically needing to know the latest accreditations and training programs required to provide the best person-centric care possible.
Staff must understand aspects of nutrition, pain management, social interaction, assessment, and how each of these areas changes within the memory care unit depending upon diagnosis.
What constitutes a “certified” dementia care staffer? How do you know who to hire and what training to invest in? How do execs weigh the choices between retraining current staff and hiring new staff? Answer all of these questions in this in-depth panel discussion.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe the top credentialing, education, and certification requirements for staffers seeking employment in a memory care unit
- Outline the knowledge base required for memory care staff members
- Illustrate how dementia can impact a typical care plan in areas like nutrition, social interaction, and assessment
- Formulate viable training approaches for staffers who may encounter pushback on activities related to hygiene and pain management
Track: Clinical and DON
E02 - Measuring ADLs Amid Memory Care
This session discusses the unique issues involved in measuring and documenting the required activities of daily living for residents with memory care challenges.
Don't miss compliance and assessment expert Leah Klusch, as she defines how memory care units must take a dramatically different approach to ensure appropriate payment and care management for residents with dementia. Break down the key concepts and components of ADL assessments, what the memory care staff must absolutely know when completing these assessments, and what to look for when monitoring performance and scoring over time.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the key factors in assessment that need to be understood by direct care staff caring for elders in Memory Care
- Review the components of the ADL Assessments that can indicate functional changes in elders with cognitive decline
- Discuss the importance of frequent review of ADL performance and support provided scores so care planning and payment are accurate
Afternoon Plenary Presentation
P03 - Do You Speak Alzheimer’s? - Effective Communication Strategies in Dementia Care
Dayne DuVall, LMT, CAEd, CRTS, Chief Operating Officer, National Certification Board for Alzheimer Care
- Recognize that all “behavior” is a form of communication and be able to identify strategies for communicating with persons with ADRD
- Outline the importance of non-verbal communication and identify methods of improving communication via these methods
- Demonstrate effect strategies for communicating with families
- Distinguish the important role that knowledge of cultural diversity plays in communicating with persons with ADRD, families and other care providers
P02 - Person Centered Care at the End of Life
In the declining stages of dementia, considerations and circumstances only become more unique and sensitive-- presenting a variety of challenges for staff, families, and caretakers. This session reviews these challenges in detail, while examining processes and strategies from a variety of perspectives and viewpoints to prepare staff to navigate the most difficult of scenarios.
- Outline the characteristics of malignant behaviors toward persons with dementia who are dying.
- Discuss key challenges in end of life person centered care for persons with dementia.
- Identify key issues and challenges in a variety of new person-centered care approaches.
- Diagram the spiritual aspects of the dying process for persons with dementia and their caregivers
E03 - Financing Memory Care Delivery
The skyrocketing demands for memory care is prompting many assisted living and skilled nursing communities to change their bed censuses in order to expand memory care services. Savvy finance models for memory care can make or break organizations’ growth now and later.
- List the numerous financing sources for memory care projects in all project phases – construction loans, bridge loans, and permanent debt
- Define the risk / reward profile – reviewing the latest trends of constructing smaller buildings by unit count which can promote greater volatility in occupancy rates and debt service coverage – and how consistent strong occupancy promotes strong debt service coverage & Net Operating Incomes (NOIs)
- Discuss how successful older properties with limited resident acuity units or none at all are taking the trendy approach of converting independent living units to Alzheimer’s units and in some cases assisted living units to Alzheimer’s units
- Outline underwriting guidelines for permanent debt--learning that permanent debt lenders desire to finance only nearly or fully stabilized properties
Track: Clinical and DON
E04 - Activity Programming: Moving Beyond Games and Puzzles
Alisa Tagg, BA, ACC/EDU, AC-BC, CDP, President, National Association of Activity Professionals
Persons suffering from Dementia can benefit from participating in activity programs. Their lives become enriched due to participation and increasing their feelings of usefulness and self-worth. During this session we will recognize the importance of activity programming and review successful tips as well as sharing examples of personal experiences.
Learning Objectives:
- Recognize the importance of activity programs for persons suffering from dementia
- Outline new innovative programming ideas that will enhance quality of care
- Review tips for successful activity programming
- Demonstrate examples of personal experiences
Friday, February 26, 2016
Morning Plenary Presentation
P04 - How to Effectively Deploy a Non-Pharmacological Memory Care Program: Bridging the Gap of Neuroscience and Supportive Living
Joshua J. Freitas, M.Ed, CADDCT, CAEd. , Corporate Director of Memory Care and Resident Engagement, LCB Senior Living, LLC
This session will address how non-pharmacological interventions as well as quality associate training may be a more effective strategy for treating those with memory loss. Attendees will explore how behavioral color therapy may create a more supportive living environment and how to deploy communication approaches that have long-term effects on the person and sustain cognitive functioning. As part of this session, attendees will develop a better understanding of dementia, a better ability to connect with someone with memory loss through contemplative care practices and how to engage a person with memory loss in a good quality of life.
Come learn how The Dementia Concept was created through research and evidence-based practices as well as the progressive research between Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and LCB Senior Living on mindfulness and cognitive rehabilitation.
Learning Objectives:
- Distinguish how the philosophy of color can increase resident engagement, appetite, attention, and in some cases even cognitive function.
- Explain how resident engagement changes the body on a macular level and how research suggests that it may slow down (and in some case reverse) our aging process and even signs and symptoms of dementia.
- Recognize how our environment changes our brains through a term referred to as neuroplasticity. You will develop a basic understanding of Epistemology (the way we view the world) and how it affects your brain (and the brain of someone with dementia).
- Develop a better understanding of Epigenetics and how it controls the course of dementia as well as how resident engagement changes our DNA.
- Examine the latest programs suggested by LCB Senior Living, LLC, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and how they improve the quality of life and sustain resident skills and abilities through a Habilitative environment
Person-centric design is a term that is currently in vogue, but what does it really mean for a memory care unit?
- Outline an innovative philosophy for memory care based on a person-centric model that aims to preserve personhood and recognize the person’s remaining abilities
- Explore essential features within the environmental design of memory care units or neighborhoods that promote safety, security and engagement for persons with high levels of cognitive needs.
- Explain how meaningful living is designed to affirm dignity, choice and independence focusing on the `person’ to incorporate continuity throughout their life and encourage positive interactions.
- Discuss the importance of dementia-specific training for all care providers and how this highlights the need to adapt to meet the evolving work responsibilities for memory care.
Track: Clinical and DON
E06 - Memory Screening: Testing Protocols for Detection and Monitoring
J. Wesson Ashford, M.D., Ph.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
Screening, assessment, and evaluation are at the heart of the modern memory care unit. A number of the latest tools and methods for screening can serve as a key touch point between staff, resident, and family-- allowing for continuous improvement of case management beyond the entry of standardized ADLs.
In this session, review the latest screening protocols both pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis that further effective care and management of those with dementia. Learn how memory screening and monitoring can estimate ADL needs for placement and care, the scientific and clinical approach behind these tools that effectively evaluate cognitive function, and why these programs have become a staple for top care organizations nationally.
Learning Objectives:
- Recognize the indicators of cognitive deterioration and dementia, from the earliest difficulties with forming new memories to the late loss of the oldest memories, and understand the basis and time-line of this progression
- Appreciate the needs and cost-effectiveness considerations for cognitive impairment screening which led to the Congressional requirement for cognitive evaluation as part of the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit
- Examine the wide range of instruments to detect cognitive impairment in older adults, including screening for memory difficulties and assessment of dementia severity
- Outline reasons for choosing a particular cognitive screening/assessment instrument for a particular care setting, including becoming aware of very brief computerized tools for assessing memory
- Relate cognitive impairment and level of dementia severity to corresponding losses of activities of daily living function, which will impact care planning and provision of care
E07 - Understanding the Dementia Focused Survey
- Discuss the regulatory history that created the need for focused survey types
- Prepare to leverage the Focused Dementia Survey Tools released in 2015 by CMS for use in facility practices and quality improvement initiatives
- Recognize the importance of the 2013 revised guidance at F-309 Quality of Care and F-329 Unnecessary Medications related to dementia care compliance and the focused survey initiative
- Describe the importance of non-pharmacological interventions in memory care and the potential impact on survey results
E08 - The DON’s Role in Memory Care Culture Change
The Director of Nursing's (DON) influence in memory care units cannot be understated. More and more as these units expand, the DON is being pulled in new directions to lead a culture change within organizations, and drive a better understanding of care and the unique implications surrounding dementia care.
- Explain the role of the DON in implementing culture change programs in the skilled nursing facility
- Explain how culture change can be effective from the lens of the interdisciplinary team
- Discuss challenges with memory care program implementation
- Discuss how to incorporate the Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement program (QAPI) with memory care.
E09 - Marketing Memory Care Services
- Define the key benefits of a memory care program and its impact on residents, caregivers and referral sources
- Prepare for differentiation of memory care programs from competitors through the use of Competitive Advantage Messages.
- Recognize which referral sources to target to increase qualified referrals to their memory care programs
- Create a "Localized Branding Campaign" to generate qualified referrals for a memory care programs
E10 - "I Hate the Shower!": Hygiene & Cognitive Challenges
- Identify alternative person-centered methods for bathing a person diagnosed with dementia.
- Distinguish factors negatively and positively impacting the bathing experience.
- Demonstrate techniques for setting the stage and executing a positive bathing experience that maintains dignity and promotes independence.
- Discover bathing strategies for preventing and defusing resident resistance to bathing.
- List 3 types of behaviors in client families that indicate unrealistic beliefs about the facility’s care abilities
- Identify 5 major stress issues family members deal with daily
- Evaluate how disgruntled family members have influenced their facility’s reputation in the past
- Describe how to change adversarial family members into happy, engaged participants in the care of their loved one