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Tips for Caring for persons living with dementia in a long-term or community-based care setting

By Jeramy Cain | March 31, 2020 | Comments Off on Tips for Caring for persons living with dementia in a long-term or community-based care setting

1) What research says about how to care for persons living with dementia in long-term or community-based care settings in times of emergencies

  • Tips for Dementia Caregivers in Long-Term or Community-Based Settings: Here are some research-based tips and strategies to support people with dementia. Please feel free to share these with staff and families, You can find the information online here, as well as attached to this email.

2) Resources that are available to support families who are anxious about not seeing their loved ones regularly &/or in-person

  • 24/7 Helpline: In times of crisis, the professional care consultants on our 24/7 Helpline (1.800.272.3900) have often been called by long-term care staff to provide stressed families with information, as well as to facilitate conversations between family members and staff. There is no charge for this service. 
  • Professional Care Consultations: We can also provide this support at the local level for free in North Dakota, and for a small fee in Minnesota. Our trained care consultants have worked with thousands of individuals and families impacted by dementia, and are passionate about helping individuals, families, and long-term care staff find evidence-based solutions to caring for loved ones. To schedule one of these, please contact Program Manager (Metro MN) Leah Challberg at lechallberg@alz.org or 952.857.0523.
  • Our FREE support groups have gone virtual! Right now, at least 31 of our support groups have transitioned to a meeting by phone or web, and are available to support people all over Minnesota and North Dakota. As families take on more stress in this season of crisis, there are trained facilitators and seasoned dementia caregivers who are ready to support them. To sign-up, please call our 24/7 Helpline (1.800.272.3900) or visit our Community Resource Finder online here.
  • Our FREE community education is available online! We have five (and growing) live, online community education classes that are scheduled over the next few weeks to provide support and education. Individuals and family members can log-in via web or call-in via phone to get evidence-based information about how to stay healthy and increase their caregiver competence. To sign-up, please call our 24/7 Helpline (1.800.272.3900) or visit our Community Resource Finder online here.
  • “Quality Dementia Care Dialogues: Helping family members & non-staff care-partners cope with COVID-19” We are offering two opportunities to connect with the Alzheimer’s Association MN-ND Chapter and other long-term care and community-based providers in a virtual forum to share ideas and evidence-based practices for how to support family and non-staff care-partners as they cope with restrictions on visiting. We will be holding two, hour-long “Quality Dementia Care Dialogues” on Friday, April 3 from 2:00-3:00 PM CST & Monday, April 6 from 10:00-11:00 AM CST. The goal of these conversations will be three-fold: 
    • Connect staff with dementia care practice recommendations about meeting the informational, educational, and psychosocial support needs of persons living with dementia and their family caregivers;
    • Facilitate connections between staff from communities & organizations around MN & ND to share strategies and interventions that are effective for them in the COVID-19 pandemic; 
    • Evaluate current strategies through the lens of evidence-based recommendations. 
    • To participate, please contact Sr. Program Manager (Metro MN) Leah Challberg at lechallberg@alz.org or 952.857.0523.

3) How do we help people with dementia remain active and engaged, while also social distancing? This is a question we are getting frequently, and we encourage you to consider contacting our 24/7 Helpline (1.800.272.3900) in addition to this opportunity to hear from long-term care and community-based providers in Minnesota & North Dakota:

  • “Quality Dementia Care Dialogues: Helping people with dementia with social distancing” We also want to offer two opportunities to connect with the Alzheimer’s Association MN-ND Chapter and with other long-term care and community-based providers in a forum to share ideas and evidence-based practices for how to implement social distancing with people with dementia. We will be holding two, hour-long “Quality Dementia Care Dialogues” on Tuesday, April 7 from 1:30-2:30 PM CST & Thursday, April 9 from 10:00-11:00 AM CST. The goal of these conversations will be three-fold:
    • Connect staff with dementia care practice recommendations; 
    • Facilitate connections between staff from communities & organizations around MN & ND to share strategies and interventions that are effective for them; 
    • Evaluate current strategies through the lens of evidence-based recommendations. 
    • To participate, please contact Sr. Program Manager (Metro MN) Leah Challberg at lechallberg@alz.org or 952.857.0523.
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