Emerging and new approaches to memory care are showcased in the documentary "Revolutionizing Dementia Care." (Photo courtesy Community Idea Stations)
Dealing with dementia is a long, dark road, punctuated with moments of the sublime.
An emerging school of thought in caring for people with dementia focuses on those moments, encouraging autonomy and empowerment, focusing on the abilities that they have, where they are now, and helping them to do all that they can do.
It’s a person-centered care approach, and it’s explored in a new documentary from the Community Idea Stations, “Revolutionizing Dementia Care,” which gets its premiere next week.
The film showcases a variety of programs across the nation and offers a voice to people who are living with dementia.
Efforts to engage people with dementia include everything from horticulture to aromatherapy. Hugs are encouraged. People with dementia are empowered to do for themselves, to do chores such as helping to clean their room.
Some programs seek to provide continuity in care givers, so that those receiving care see the same people every day, and build in time for more personal interactions, such as sitting down and eating meals together.
“It really comes down to the relationship,” says Mason Mills, director of the documentary and a senior producer and director for the Community Idea Stations. “It really gets down to that personal care."
The documentary airs at 9 p.m. on Nov. 15 on WCVE-TV in Metro Richmond and online at ideastations.org/AlzCare. It will have its premiere on Nov. 1 at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville. The festival event will include a panel discussion with Mills and some of the individuals featured in the documentary.
Dementia care is a growing concern in health care. The number of people with dementia in the United States will nearly triple by 2060, according to a report released in September by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 5 million Americans lived with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in 2014. The CDC projects that 13.9 million Americans will be diagnosed with dementias by 2060, or about 3.3 percent of the population. About 13.8 percent of African-Americans age 65 and older are diagnosed with dementias, the highest rate of any ethnic group. Alzheimer’s is the fifth most common cause of death in older Americans.
The person-centered paradigm is more of an exception in the marketplace, but Mills notes that the showcased programs are researched-based. “We wanted to go to places where this can be replicated,” he says. “This isn’t just someone’s idea that happened to come along.”
Mills says he was surprised by the level of empowerment that can be enjoyed by someone living with dementia. Many people view those with dementia as being a shell of their former self, with little left, but he’s learned that there is so much more and that empowerment has a significant impact on their feeling of well-being.
Mills says the documentary is the second in a series of four planned films. The first, “Alzheimer’s: The Caregiver’s Perspective,” aired in 2016. The new documentary evolved out of the research and reporting from the first. “We found that there was a real need to talk about this kind of care and what is out there,” he says.
The next documentary will focus more on research into dementia.
A workshop will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Nov. 2 at the Community Idea Stations Richmond studios, 23 Sesame St., off Robious Road near Huguenot Park. The workshop will feature speakers including Brian LeBlanc, who is living with Alzheimer's and serves as the narrator for the documentary.
Mills met LeBlanc at a Dementia Action Alliance conference in Atlanta, where they found he was “really into TV.” Mills was puzzling over who should narrate “Revolutionizing” until waking up early one morning with the epiphany that it should be LeBlanc.
The partnership worked well, with LeBlanc at times taking what was written for him and adding suggestions that enhanced the work. “He really has enjoyed it,” says Mills.
Other workshop speakers include Karen Love, a gerontologist and executive director of the Dementia Action Alliance; Zohn Zeisel, CEO and president of the I’m Still Here Foundation and Hearthstone Alzheimer Care; Deke Cateau, the CEO of A.G. Rhodes Health and Rehab in Atlanta; and Judith Koziol, an Ageless Grace educator. The workshop is in partnership with the Dementia Action Alliance and LeadingAge Virginia. Admission is $15, or $35 for professionals.
There's also a discussion group on Facebook.
