June, 2009
I originally came to the idea of a family resource night because of the long and stressful conversations that I had to have with numerous families in our community. Our support program events had had as few as four people, but with the new approach, we have seen as many as 16. I came to the conclusion that I could not provide “support” to our families because I did not know first-hand what it feels like or how it is to deal with a loved one experiencing Alzheimer’s and/or dementia.
I do, however, understand that education can be the first step to empowering people to deal with and handle such a devastating disease. Families need someone to be upfront and honest and to touch on subjects that are sometimes overlooked when we learn about dementia care.
I started by simply looking at the education topics I would want our staff to understand. One of the biggest challenges with families and dementia residents is communication. You could hold a meeting every week and still not touch all of the communication topics families need. Families need to know what they can do to enhance their loved ones lives, not their own lives. If we can educate families to understand this is not about them, but the resident, it can open doors we would never open before.
For education nights, I found materials on the ADSA website, information from our dementia specialty training, and the ALZ.org website.
Since hosting the family resource nights staff has had to spend less time education families, families have begun to support one another, better communication occurs between families and their loves ones and some of the newly educated families have begun volunteering in the community helping residents.
An education meeting or education night is a start of showing our families we love and care for them as much as we do our residents.
Taken from: Washington Aging & Adult Disabilities Newsletter, December 2008, Vol. 1, Issue 4