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Splaine Consulting October 2022 Newsletter
Thoughtful Hospitalization
Are you a family caregiver to a loved one living with dementia? Join Aging Advocate Mike Splaine for the free Thoughtful Hospitalization Workshop for family caregivers. Thoughtful Hospitalization offers the essential tools to caregivers to help their loved one avoid unnecessary hospitalization, prepare for hospitalization, navigate hospitalization, transition home safely, and set up for the best possible recovery at home.
Hospitalization can be especially difficult for people with dementia. They often experience higher risk for falls, dehydration, malnutrition, untreated pain, medication-related problems, and physical restraints. But, a hospital stay doesn’t have to be this way! Build your knowledge and confidence to navigate a hospital stay safely with your loved one.
Thoughtful Hospitalization will also be offered online via Zoom on several dates and times.
Register for any one of the following dates:
- Saturday, 10/8, 8am PST
- Monday, 10/10, 12pm PST
- Saturday 10/15, 8am PST
- Friday, 10/28, 10am PST
Living Well with Dementia Conference
Last month, Cynthia Huling Hummel and Mike Splaine presented at the Living Well with Dementia conference in Indianapolis, hosted by The Dementia Action Alliance. Their presentation, ‘Can Persons with
Dementia Live Alone?’ outlined how persons with dementia can live alone safely and feel connected and how anyone who cares about, works with, or interacts with individuals living with dementia can best support
them.
Home-Based Solutions Stakeholder Conference
Mike Splaine, Jeff Klien, and key stakeholders for the Home-Based Solutions stakeholder
Conference: Enhancing the continuum of care for persons with dementia, improving health outcomes and reducing caregiver burden.
The conference will oultine key initiatives in place to serve people with dementia and their caregivers in the Clark County community. These initiatives address:
- Community Options Program for the Elderly (COPE) – an evidenced based in home intervention within a community-based dementia capable framework
- Personal Coaching and Respite
- HomeMeds – an evidenced based tool for ensuring Medication Related Safety
- Dementia Capable Education to support family care partners and the community
Nevada Senior Services is a Splaine Consulting client of long standing with whom we developed Hospital2Home, a care transitions program for persons with dementia and their families.
Agitation Across a Spectrum of Dementia Patients
The results of the study on agitation across a spectrum of dementia patients were recently published in MEDPAGETODAY. Carolyn W. Zhu, PhD, a professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and co-author Mary Sano, PhD, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Icahn School of Medicine, led the study to determine whether the International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) definition of agitation in cognitive impairment and dementia was applicable to a cohort of nearly 20,000 community-dwelling older adults across the full spectrum of cognitive impairment.
A key finding from the study showed that even patients with very mild cognitive impairment may display levels of agitation that warrant intervention and management. Further, the investigators found that agitation in the study participants with dementia aligned with symptoms in the IPA definition, including excess disability. According to the IPA definition, behaviors related to agitation must be “severe enough to produce excess disability,” and include either a significant impairment in social functioning, interpersonal relationships, or in the ability to carry out activities of daily living.
Dr. Zhu spoke to the importance of earlier recognition and management: “Our results on the prevalence of agitation, even in those with mild cognitive impairment, suggest that clinicians need to include this in their assessment of patients with varying levels of cognitive dysfunction.” She adds that, “providers may need to offer patients, their families, and caregivers guidance and coaching on the use of psychosocial and pharmacologic interventions for agitation.” Splaine Consulting was a lead consultant to IPA on this project.
Learn more here.
Healthy Food – Healthy Brain Rack Cards
In partnership with the CDC, the International Association for Indigenous Aging has just released the first of a series of 6 Healthy Food rack cards. This healthy eating-focused message series includes practical advice and culturally relevant recipes.
Rack cards can be distributed through senior centers, inter-tribal organizations, healthcare facilities, administrative offices, tribal newspapers/radio stations, and as mailers to tribal members.
Find the healthy eating rack cards here.
Living Alone and Connected!
Living Alone and Connected! (LAAC) is an online community private Facebook group made for persons living alone with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.
Through dynamic content and interactive online events, LAAC’s mission is to lessen the effects of the existing social isolation many people with Alzheimer’s already faced, isolation that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Living Alone and Connected! hosts events from happy hours and virtual museum tours to educational programs on brain health activities and dementia-friendly homes and technology. Through creativity we will create connectivity! You might live alone, but you don’t have to feel alone.
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 90ADPI0067-01-00 from the Administration on Aging (AoA), Alzheimer’s Disease Program Initiative (ADPI) and cooperative agreement NVADPI0082 from the Neighbor Network of Northern Nevada.
If you have Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia and live in a single person household or if you care for someone that does, please join or share the Living Alone and Connected Facebook group today!
