Perservere and Succeed
Perservere and succeed was the school motto when my children went to Junior School and somehow it resonated with me probably more than it did with my children. I find as I work with residents with cognitive issues I am saying that to myself more and more. In the past few weeks however that perserverence has led to a breakthrough with one of our residents in our Memory Care community that I would like to share with you.
P. a male resident with early onset dementia, a twenty year navy veteran has been a challenge to me ever since he was brought into our community almost two years ago.He has the traits of an emerald always on the go but due to our lack of communication we often consider him to be more amber in abilities. He has a very brooding, menacing demenour which I think many of the staff find intimidating. It would not be fair to say he is non verbal because he will talk but it makes no sense and does not seem to relate to anything you say to him.
I thought a few months ago he could read. I had put a powerpoint on a screen and saw him follow it with his eyes. I watched him and when he appeared to get to the end of a slide he nodded at me seeming to understand that I could move it along and I did. His facial expression seemed to be trying to communicate "I find that interesting" one eyebrow raised higher than the other and a slight nod. I felt elated because I thought we had a breakthrough and now we would be able to communicate with him. I passed the information on to the staff and suggested the next time they needed him to do something to write it down and to let me know if he complied. When I followed up with staff I was told no it had made no difference.
Recently I shared my suspicions of his being able to read with a new member of my staff and I asked him to work with him 1:1. He was doing a trivia game and remembering what I had said asked a question of P. and then pointed to the answer which was Vermont he reported to me that without hesitation in a loud clear voice P. read out the name which had my staff member feeling like he had won a jackpot. I suggested he tried an app we subscribe to that has trivia questions each with four possible answers and show P. the tablet. P. read the question read the four answers and without hesitation called out the answer New York and it was the correct answer. However, to the dissapointment of my staff member P. would not get engaged in the next question. I explained we need to go slow and be patient maybe adding an extra question each day.
Communicating on any level is key to success with dementia. As you may have gathered from my recent blog posts non verbal communication has become something of an obsession with me as I believe communication on any level to be key. I am constantly striving to improve in my interaction with our residents and this case shows us that you must always be alert to clues given to us by the people we are caring for. I am hoping we will progess with P. However, if we dont get much further we have made a human connection with someone starved of communication and we count our successes in moments of joy. Dont forget to always observe a PLWD even from a distance and be a detective, never give up on anyone there will be a moment when you will touch the person inside and that moment is truly inspirational.
