OTHER HEALTH SERVICES

Dementia | Adult Day Centers | Outpatient Primary Care | Geriatric Consultations | Assisted Living Services Agency

DEMENTIA

Hebrew Health Care has a dynamic Dementia Care program. Among the programs offered at its West Hartford campus, Dementia Care Services offers art therapy, dance-movement therapy and music therapy through A Fresh Canvas: Alzheimer's Arts Program, supported by funds from the Jewish Community Foundation. Dementia-capable care is provided throughout Hebrew Health Care's affiliates. Staff from Hebrew Health Adult Day Services, Hebrew Health Visiting Nurses, Hebrew Health Hospice and Hebrew Health Assisted Living Services, The Hospital at Hebrew Health Care, and Hoffman Summerwood Community complete dementia specialist training along with staff from the skilled nursing facility. Additionally, dementia-specific care is provided on the Special Care Unit at the Gene and Anja Rosenberg Hebrew Home and Rehabilitation Center.

Dementia Care Services at Hebrew Health Care provides direct support to the community and integrated services to residents, patients, clients, families, and health care professionals throughout the Hebrew Health Care system. We embrace a holistic, abilities-focused approach to dementia care.

Our philosophy:

"Person centered care" that emphasizes interests, abilities, tasks of living, and success, not problems and losses.
Montessori-based approach to activities to tap into procedural memory and remaining skills.
Therapies such as music and art therapy that are outcome driven, not just entertainment.
Life enrichment activities such as integrated pet care and plant care.
Programs and therapies that are highly customized, not one-size-fits-all.

We offer the following specific dementia care services:

Consultations: we identify the stage of the impairment, recommend care approaches and creative adaptations for each stage, and outline the available service options, including office visits, home visits, care packages, activity planning, and information and referral for people who are traveling with someone with dementia.
Education: our resource library provides access to information about dementia and treatments in 33 different languages for health care professionals, adult children, grandchildren, and others touched by dementia. It includes DVD's, CD's, VHS cassettes, journal articles, and books. We also provide seminars and workshops on memory loss, cognitive fitness, behavior management, effective communication techniques, safety issues, disease progression and how to make the most of visits with loved ones.
Support Groups: we offer support for people of all ages, across all stages of dementia, including caregiver, couples, and early stage individual support groups.
Inpatient Unit: our 42-bed special care unit is designed to meet the physical, medical and social needs of people with moderate to advanced dementia. Staff are specially trained. Programs are offered to help patients function to the best of their ability and feel success. Stimuli or triggers that can cause anxiety are eliminated from the environment. Pain recognition and management is emphasized for patients who can't communicate that they are experiencing pain.
Integration: we provide education and consult on care plans, behavioral management, pain recognition, and environmental adjustments to help staff, patients, and families throughout the Hebrew Health Care system care for people with dementia more effectively.

DEMENTIA CARE SERVICES at HEBREW HEALTH CARE

SHARED HISTORY

As Hebrew Health Care was being created in 1901, Dr. Alois Alzheimer was in Germany beginning to work with a patient, Frau Auguste Deter. She was admitted to a psychiatric hospital with strange behaviors and memory problems, despite her young age of 51. By 1906, she had died and Dr. Alzheimer studied her brain using new techniques in histology and microscopy. What he found in the tissue slides of the brain of Frau Deter were what we now consider the hallmark indicators of Alzheimer’s disease. Experts around the globe have debated if Dr. Alzheimer set out to “discover” a new disease, or if he merely wanted to point out that senile dementia could occur in a younger person. Either way, decades have passed and we still know relatively little about this disease, and experts have yet to find a cause or cure.

FACTS OF TODAY

Currently there are more than 5 million Americans with Alzheimer’s disease. The “related disorders” which cause changes in intellectual functioning like reasoning, judgment and memory (dementia) include: vascular or multi-infarct dementia, Parkinson’s dementia, Lewy Body dementia and other metabolic disorders, rare diseases and dementia associated with other diseases, such as Multiple Sclerosis and alcoholism. One striking fact about dementia is that a patient can have more than one kind in the brain at the same time (mixed dementia). The problem stretches across all countries, affecting more than 22 million adults globally.

SPECIAL CARE REQUIRED

The care of persons with dementia includes specialized attention to medical and emotional needs, education and information about Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, and care and support of caregivers. Care of persons with dementia is considered across the continuum of care offered by Hebrew Health Care, Inc. Persons with dementia are cared for in an individualized, person-centered manner, with the priorities of making the most of life while maintaining general health and safety.

SERVICES AND SUPPORTS

Visiting Dementia Care Services new website:

http://agingcareacademy.org/

If you would like to view the video from the Art Exhibit and Lecture, Dementia and the Arts, please click on the image below.

Pamela Atwood, Director of Dementia Care Services, was a guest on Full Bloom. The topic of the episode was Caregiving and Dementia. This is the first show out of the four show series all discussing Dementia. Click on the Full Bloom logo below to view the episode.