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Splaine Consulting October 2020 Newsletter
Splaine Consulting Highlights
Our team’s advocacy work, here & abroad
COVID-19 and Dementia
Persons with dementia have difficulty managing their other chronic conditions, but no one ever imagined their lives during the COVID-19
pandemic. We believe we are in for at least another year of coping, which
will test our personal, familial and health care system resiliency. Prolonged
social isolation will continue to pose challenges to persons living alone with
dementia and those embedded in families and their caregivers.
Splaine Consulting is solution oriented, so this month’s newsletter includes
a feature story highlighting supportive services from our client, Nevada
Senior Services.
Supporting Those Impacted by Dementia &
COVID-19
Hospital2Home: Las Vegas, Nevada
Splaine Consulting has been a consulting partner to Hospital2Home (H2H),
an evidence-based care transitions program provided through Nevada
Senior Services in Las Vegas, Nevada.
H2H received a referral from the Valley Health System to initiate services to
Mr. G due to hospitalizations resulting from falls in his home. Mr. G had
advancing dementia and was a very tall man lacking body awareness.
When he would fall, he could not get up. When paramedics would come to
transport him to the hospital due to the falls, they could not get their gurney
into the home and had to drag him out of his mobile home using sheets and
blankets. The caregiver, his daughter, was struggling with her own chronic
medical conditions, her father’s needs, taking care of herself and managing
the household. The H2H team put a respite coaching team in the home with
Mr. G so his daughter could assess and manage her own doctor appointments. The respite coaches helped her learn tips and tricks to ease
the stress of caregiving for her father with dementia while the social work
team worked on long term goals to sustain the family. A referral was made to the home modifications team at Nevada Senior Services. They built a ramp so that the client would never have to be carried out in a sheet again.
The family completed care with the H2H team but then the client became
COVID-19 positive and was hospitalized. A week later, the daughter became ill and ended up in the hospital, 3 doors down from her father in ICU. Due to their diagnoses, they were not able to see each other in person. Mr. G passed away on Father’s Day 2020. His daughter lived through the virus but is grieving the loss of her father and sustained chronic lung damage from the virus. Upon arrival home, the H2H team surrounded her with support, over the phone and virtually until her COVID-19 test came back negative and H2H was able to go in the home. With the support of respite coaching and social work staff, the client can get to her doctor’s appointments, receive food, and begin planning for her future. Permission to share her and her father’s story was granted to honor his legacy
Focus on COVID-19 & Dementia: Fall Webinar
Series
NADRC is hosting a free webinar series on COVID-19 and dementia. Each
webinar will focus on organizations that have pivoted their service delivery
systems to continue serving and supporting people living with dementia and their caregivers during the pandemic
The series is as follows:
October 19, 2020 2-3PM ET – Providing In-person Services and Supports to
People Living with Dementia during COVID-19 – Register Here
Presenters:
Victoria Jump, Ventura County Area Agency on Aging
Jeffrey Klein, Nevada Senior Services
November 2, 2020 2-3PM ET – Using Technology to Provide Services to
People Living with Dementia and Their Caregivers during COVID-19 –
Register Here
Presenters:
Vanessa Anciani, United Community Care, Inc.
Sharon Cantrell, Amazing Place
November 19, 2020 2-3PM ET – Maintaining Services and Supports for
People Living with Dementia and their Caregivers during COVID-19
Register here
Presenters:
Christine Jensen, Ph.D., Director, Health Services Research,
Riverside Center for Excellence in Aging and Lifelong Health
María Ordóñez, DNP, APRN, GNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, CDP, FAANP,
FAAN, Director, Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center,
FAU Memory Disorder Clinic Coordinator, Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative
Living Alone and Connected!
Living Alone and Connected! is an online community made for persons living alone with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Living Alone and Connected! is a place where people can come together to share questions, ideas, and find curated information to provide support to those living with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia who live in a single person household.
Living Alone and Connected! is a Facebook group hosted and moderated by Cognitive Solutions, LLC. Living Alone and Connected! is supported in part by a cooperative agreement NV90ALGG0015 from the Administration on Aging (AoA), Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
www.livingaloneandconnected.com
Community Partnership Opportunities During COVID-19
Recently Splaine Consulting assisted a community-based organization to determine what services it could provide community dwelling elders and persons with AD who test positive for COVID-19 from a community testing site. In less than 10 business days, we identified service options within their existing capability, short- and long-term payment mechanisms and an assessment of the potential for partnerships with community testing sites.
Interested in assessing your opportunities? Contact Mike & Kate!
Alzheimer’s Around the World
The latest policy, advocacy & research events and news
Dementia care & Palliative care: during and
beyond the COVID-19 pandemic
Monday October 12, 2020 – 8AM ET – ADI, Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) and HelpAge International are coming together to host a vital webinar on key issues emerging around dementia care and palliative care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Throughout the pandemic, there have been avoidable gaps in knowledge about dementia care and palliative care, especially around scarcity of resources, access to treatment and care and lack of clarity around treatment and triage protocols. There has also been widespread ageism,
with many older people facing particular challenges in accessing services
and support. Yet, there has been insight and learning too; and it is essential
that both dementia-specific and palliative-specific care are not neglected in
future waves or during similar pandemic situations – that older people, most affected by dementia, most at risk from COVID-19, and in need of palliative care have access to services and support.
People living with dementia and their families – similarly, people in need
of palliative care – have suffered as a consequence and we must ask: how
can we distil lessons from the COVID experience to date and ensure the
implementation of better policies and practices as part of public health
responses to health emergencies?