July 31, 2025 • 46 mins
Dementia care represents one of the most significant opportunities for home care agencies looking to differentiate themselves in today's competitive marketplace. While most providers claim to offer memory care services, few deliver the comprehensive, specialized support that families desperately need.
Creating a structured, branded dementia program transforms how your agency serves clients and positions itself in your community. This isn't about simply adding "Alzheimer's care" to your service list – it's about developing a formal, named program that communicates expertise and inspires trust. Whether you call it "Memory Care Program," "Moments of Joy," or another distinctive name, what matters is backing that program with specialized training, tools, and approaches that deliver measurably better outcomes.
The foundation of exceptional dementia care starts with caregiver training and retention. Partnering with organizations like the Alzheimer's Association for complimentary education or investing in programs like Teepa Snow's methodology equips your team with essential skills in redirection, communication, and behavior management. Supporting these caregivers through differential pay, recognition programs, and ongoing mentorship creates a specialized workforce capable of transforming clients' lives. The personal stories shared throughout this discussion – from the engineer who found purpose in mechanical tasks to the homemaker who regained joy through sorting socks – illustrate how understanding individual histories creates powerful connections.
What truly distinguishes leading memory care programs is their investment in specialized tools and approaches. From fidget blankets and memory books to adaptive dining equipment and personalized activity kits, these resources enable caregivers to engage clients meaningfully throughout their journey. Many successful agencies maintain lending libraries of these items, allowing caregivers to "check out" tools suited to specific clients' needs and interests. Combine these practical resources with strategic marketing across all platforms – website, social media, community presentations – and your agency becomes the obvious choice for families searching for memory care expertise.
Ready to establish your agency as the dementia care leader in your community? Start by giving your program a name, systematically training your caregivers, and sharing compelling client success stories that demonstrate your difference. The growing need for specialized memory care at home creates an unprecedented opportunity for agencies willing to move beyond basics and become true partners for families facing cognitive decline.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Annette Ziegler.
I think I know most of you here.
I've been with ASN over a year20 plus years home care and home
care marketing experience.
I teach the sales trainingclasses here at ASN our 12-week
proven sales training class andI see, like I said, I see some
of my class members here.
Welcome, we're excited to haveyou here today.
(00:21):
We're going to be talking aboutdementia and how your agency
can stand out and help yourdementia clients.
Lisa.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, I'm Lisa Marseillais.
I've been here for two yearsand was in home care forever and
a day, and I'm just happy to behere, I'm happy to be on this
side Also just helping you guyswith your growth.
And I just want to dig intothis dementia care.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Hi I'm.
Dahlia.
Welcome everybody.
It's good to see we've gotquite a.
I see some familiar faces and acouple of new faces too.
Welcome.
I've also been in home care fora long time.
You can lean in on ourexperience.
I love home care, I love yourmission and all the things that
you do to help the seniors stayat home and stay independent, so
(01:07):
thank you for doing that.
It's important work and Valerieis going to be a little bit
late today.
If she makes it, she hassomething come up.
Danette, you're going to berunning the show.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yes, I am Myself and Lisa, so here we go.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
All right.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Okay, housekeeping Lines muted and less speaking.
Share stories, experience tips,ask questions, make
recommendations and tell us whatyou want to know.
Our agenda, why specializeddementia care matters.
Dementia-focused home care setsyour agency apart Branding and
marketing dementia care,training and staff empowerment,
(01:46):
retaining great dementiacaregivers and some really cool
recommended tools and productsthat we found for you August,
september and Octoberleave-behinds, and we will
announce this again at the endof the class.
But we always pick a winner.
We put everybody that'sattending the mastery today, we
put your name in a hat and wepick a winner.
Then you, everybody that'sattending the mastery today, we
put your name in a hat and wepick a winner.
(02:06):
Then you will receive somecustomized leave-behinds, for I
think we're probably givingSeptember I would think by now,
right, because we're going intoAugust.
So if you are interested inreceiving the leave-behinds, say
yes in the chat box.
You have to one.
You have to use theleave-behinds.
We want to see you out theremarketing with them.
(02:26):
Send us pictures.
So please put your name in thechat box and Lisa will start
writing everybody's name down.
Okay, we were talking about wetake care of being in home care.
We help a lot of clients withdementia.
So it's important Families arelooking for agencies that
(02:50):
specialize in dementia care.
Most agencies offer generalservices, assistance with
transportation, companionships,but sometimes they lack the
structure of training and thetools to properly support
individuals with dementia.
There could be lack ofdementia-specific training.
Many caregivers aren't trainedto recognize stages, to manage
(03:11):
behaviors, to redirect, tocommunicate effectively with
clients experiencing cognitivedecline, and we know that.
I know when I worked in homecare and we had a client that
had dementia, it was reallyimportant for us to pair that
client with a caregiver that hadexperience and knew how to
handle somebody with dementia.
So it's very important.
(03:32):
Inadequate planning care plansare often too generic, ignoring
the unique needs of memoryimpaired clients.
As we know, some of thesememory care clients have
specific needs.
They can have agitation, theymay not trust somebody.
There's so many things and youreally have to make sure that
your care plans have everythingin them so your caregiver is
(03:53):
prepared to help this patient.
Poor consistency high turnoverrate.
High caregiver turnover ratethey get burned out.
Lack of ongoing education thatleads to fragmented care and
confusion.
For clients Like you have tohave consistency, especially
with somebody with dementia.
You want to make sure you havethat same caregiver or
(04:13):
caregivers.
Without proper safeguards,dementia clients are at higher
risk for wandering medicationerrors, agitation and falls Okay
, agitation and falls Okay.
So we want you to set your homecare agency apart In today's
market.
Simply offering Alzheimer'ssupport or memory care on your
website isn't enough.
(04:33):
True differentiation meansdelivering a level of
dementia-informed care that ismeasurably better, emotionally
deeper and clearly communicatedto families, referral sources in
your community.
You build a recognized dementiacare program.
Give it a name.
Examples memory care program,stay at home with Alzheimer's,
(04:58):
moments of joy, dementiaengagement service whatever you
want to name it, but let themknow that you are ready to help
their family members or theirloved ones with dementia.
You want to have adifferentiator.
A formal named program givesyour agency identity,
credibility and brand value,offer specialized caregiving.
Families are looking forexpertise in agencies that are
(05:20):
visibly investing in dementia.
Training will trust fasterFamilies.
They're looking for somebody.
They're tired, they're burntout.
They're looking for an agencythat has caregivers that can
help them, that understanddementia and that understand how
to work with these clients.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I was just going to say.
Storytelling comes into playhere, really based on your, what
you've had happen in the past,like what your experiences are,
and then, like we talked aboutwhile we were putting this
together, sorting socks was onethat we came up with and I've
used that too, where the personis just so fidgety, but they
want to be helpful as well.
(05:59):
They still have that piece ofthem.
Maybe it was mom to seven orsomething and she was used to
doing all these different thingsand she wants to be helping.
So I think, finding out a lotabout that person and then using
storytelling, oh yeah, in myexperience I had someone just
like her and this is what we didto put something together for
her to make her feel good,comfortable, useful, in her home
(06:21):
.
I think that helps a lot usefulin her home.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I think that helps a lot.
Yeah, and also somebody thatunderstands how to redirect.
If somebody not telling them noand going along with the story,
we always said it was okay,it's called a therapeutic lie.
It's okay to just go along withthem.
If they're telling yousomething silly, just go along
with them.
Okay, that's great.
Tell me about that time,because many times they're
thinking they don't rememberwhat they just ate for breakfast
(06:48):
or lunch, but they do rememberway, way back when.
So if that makes them happy andthey're talking about something
, you have to have a caregiverthat understands.
No, the redirecting is reallybig.
They may be saying I want to gohome or I want to go here, okay
, we'll go home, but you knowwhat?
We're going to go make somelunch right now.
Just change the subject.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Valerie and I were just at the Home Care
Association in Florida, the bigconference that they have once a
year.
We presented for two differentbreakout sessions and one was on
branding your agency and thedifferentiator.
If you do decide thatAlzheimer's training,
alzheimer's services are goingto be your differentiator, if
you do decide that Alzheimer'straining, alzheimer's services
are going to be yourdifferentiator and Annette
(07:29):
mentioned this name it something.
Once it has a name, people takeit seriously and make sure it's
everywhere.
Make sure that your marketerthat's going out has that in the
paper, the lead behinds thatthey're giving out.
Make sure it's on your Facebook, your LinkedIn, your website.
So make sure that everybody inthe paper, the leave behinds
that they're giving out, makesure it's on your Facebook, your
LinkedIn, your website.
So make sure that everybody inthe company understands that
(07:50):
this is our differentiator, thisis our mission, whatever it is.
Make sure that it's through allchannels, all people and that's
the tone from the receptionist.
Even they should know that'syour specialty, because an adult
child might call and say, hey,my mom has Alzheimer's.
You guys specialize in thatright.
The receptionist should knowthat.
Everybody on the team.
(08:10):
So I just can't stress thatenough.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Anyway, sorry to interrupt.
No, and I agree.
And actually, as a home careagency you take all types of
clients but, as we know, clientswith dementia tend to lead to
24-7s some really good hours.
So you want to specialize indementia.
Many of these people, they wantto stay home but they're unsafe
.
Staying home, it could be somereally good hours.
I remember we had clients thatwe had for years that were 24-7.
(08:34):
They were physically totallyfine but they were unsafe to be
left alone.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, branding and marketingyour agency for dementia care,
just like Dawn said, instead oflistening, to dementia care.
I give it a brand power bynaming it.
Create a program, an identity.
(08:56):
Build a dementia-centeredwebsite.
We offer Alzheimer's care.
We have trained dementiacaregivers.
We offer Alzheimer's care.
We have trained dementiacaregivers.
Use emotionally driven contentmarketing.
Leverage with your referralpartnerships, agencies that
specialize in dementia care.
You can create preferredrelationship with memory clinics
(09:17):
, neurology offices,geriatricians, elder law
attorneys, alzheimer's supportgroups, hospitals, snf, rehab
discharges.
I'm going to add in geriatriccare managers, but there's so
many people that you couldconnect with.
All of these people are workingwith dementia patients so you
could target with them, partnerwith them.
Website updates yourleave-behinds dementia-specific
(09:41):
leave-behinds for your referralpartners, letting them know that
you specialize in dementiaEducation, having lunch and
learns in services, talkingabout how your caregivers are
trained and how it can helppeople with dementia and
storytelling, telling them abouta specific client and what you
do and just bringing.
I know, lisa, you were justtalking about the sorting socks.
(10:01):
We've had a client.
You're going to get dementiacare clients that have behaviors
.
It happens and we had agentleman.
He really he just had reallybad behaviors.
He loved to put together clocksand take apart radios and he
just wanted to work with hisfingers.
So our client care coordinatorshe was so great with working
(10:22):
with dementia clients.
She brought over.
She went to Goodwill andbrought over all these old
clocks and radios and put themon a table in his home and, boom
, he was like a new person.
He had something to do with,something he related with, so
trying to figure out how youcould connect with these people
and he, in his behaviors he justhe felt like he was back in the
(10:42):
day when he was fixing hisclocks.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
That's what he had done for a living.
Okay, that's so cool.
Yeah, it's just like there wasa man, too, who had worked in an
office.
I think it was like mortgage orsomething, and so setting up a
little desk with a phone and hispaperwork was the complete game
changer for him.
It gave him purpose again.
That's what he remembered, sohe was like wondering where's
all these things that I used todo?
I remember this one thing andI'm fixated on it, and so
(11:11):
creating that environment forhim just was a complete game
changer and made him so happy.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And don't forget too.
I know Annette said you can goto memory care units and that
kind of thing.
I know we think they're inmemory care and they're getting
lots of attention, but there aresome that might have sundowners
and they're up all night.
We took a terrible woman whohad sundowners and she would get
up in the middle of the night,not up.
She was up and just startplaying the piano and wake up
(11:37):
the whole building and so wewould come there overnight and
just we'd do overnight awakesjust to keep her busy.
We had another gentleman thatwas 55, the engineer, and he had
early onset dementia.
They thought so bad they had toput him in memory care and he
would sit in there in the roomswith all of the other residents
(11:58):
and noticed one time that theanother resident's wheelchair,
the wheel there was somethingwhen he's an engineer, right, he
could see from across the roomsomething was wrong with it.
He went and just picked up thewheelchair and turned it upside
down.
She was sitting in it becausehe just wanted to fix that wheel
.
He meant no harm but he wasengineering his mind and so when
(12:19):
he did that they told his wifehe can't stay here unless he's a
caregiver 24-7.
So we were in the building 24-7with this man and we did that
for probably a year, I think,before.
I'm not even sure.
I think they moved to wheretheir kids are, but you just
never know what could happen.
I think it's a really importantarea to focus on, for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Yeah, lots of opportunities in memory care to
get clients.
Lots of opportunities Because,like you said, even though
there's staff there, there'stimes where they need a
one-on-one, they're just notthinking directly, all right, so
next I'm going to have Lisatake over now for the kind of
talk, a little bit about how tobrand and market your agency for
(13:00):
dementia.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I did want to just touch on something that Tess
said here and Tess said here andTess will answer the other
question later but she said theyhad a client who was a builder
by trade and so they got himLego building sets.
I think that's just a greatidea making little models.
I love it.
Yeah, you definitely have tomove with whatever their need is
.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
You've got to figure it out, my little the
engineering guy.
He figured out how to get inthe code and he could get
through the door.
Some marty pants watch, I don'tknow, but he got through.
The caregiver was therestopping, but yeah, he, that was
enough.
He came in was because he wascracking the code and getting
past the door.
So anyway, that's.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, okay.
So branding and marketing youragency with Dementia Care.
Talk about Dementia Careeverywhere.
If it's not on your website, itdidn't happen.
That's my new saying.
If you didn't write about it,if it's not written online, it
doesn't exist for you, and soyou have to talk about it
everywhere.
Couple of screenshots of somedifferent places that we help
(14:04):
people mention these things anddifferentiate themselves across
online platforms.
So here here's her website andDementia Home Care.
That is one of the pages andthat's an entire page dedicated
to this service, as you can seethe other services too, but it's
dedicated there.
So there's a ton of content onthis page and it talks all about
(14:24):
Dementia Home Care, and sothat's one there.
So there's a ton of content onthis page and it talks all about
dementia home care, and sothat's one way.
And then, here again, this ison the website.
This is I think this is a it'slike a location page that talks
all about dementia care.
So it's talking about thelocation you want to show up for
in an online search, and inaddition to dementia care.
(14:45):
So these are the types ofthings you want to see on your
website and across platforms.
Next slide Blog content tosocial media.
So blogging on your website andthen making sure that it's
pushed everywhere, right?
So all those other channelsthat you have your brand on or
you have a page for you want tomake sure that's seen there too,
(15:08):
and the idea is that oncesomeone sees it on that platform
, they click on the link and itwill go back to your website.
So again in a search you willshow up any of these.
See all the words here.
You know that how Alzheimer'scare can help your senior parent
live at home.
Imagine someone searching that.
That's going to help you showup for that search.
So you want to mention iteverywhere you possibly can Next
(15:30):
slide.
Okay, this is something that Ithink he's here today Actually,
I saw him here, but he sent usthis, so he's in one of our
programs so I can grab thisstuff and I know the stories
behind them but sends us hiscompany news, which was their
walk to end Alzheimer's and theyhad their own team yeah, their
(15:51):
own team and what we do is wepost it on their blog and then
we push it to their social forthem.
So you could have a company dothis for you as well.
So to make sure that this isseen across platform, but this
shows everyone that, yes, theyspecialize and they care about
Alzheimer's dementia, and soanother way to make sure it's
across platform, everywhere thatpeople can find you, and it
(16:14):
links back to your website wherethey can have your contact
information.
Read more about you.
Fill out a form, whatever thecase may be.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah Post it on your Facebook, your Instagram, your
LinkedIn, everywhere.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yes, yes, all the socials, all of them, everywhere
.
Another way is to sharethird-party articles, post
real-time community engagement,what you saw on the other slide,
and then oops, I guess I mighthave chopped that one off a
little bit that last photo orimage but post and brand so
branding yourself with that,whatever it is, dementia care or
(16:50):
memory care moments orsomething like that, some sort
of title with your company nameobviously.
Like that, some sort of titlewith your company name obviously
Third-party articles.
This is just informative.
It does lead to anotherperson's website or another
website, but it does have somegood information.
You don't want to lead awayfrom your website too much, but
you can share articles like thisas well and then post real-time
(17:10):
community engagement.
You see, this is awesome.
They went to this particulargroup, went to Silverado Memory
Care and they had I can't readit, sorry, guys, but I don't
have my glasses on- they hadlunch at a memory care.
It was like a lunch and learn orsomething like that.
So that's awesome, and peoplethat are following you on your
socials really want to see yoursmiling faces and what you're
(17:32):
doing out in the community.
They love it and they're goingto comment, share, reply or just
like it, which really helpswith engagement and push your
brand and your company furtheronline.
Okay, and the next slide, andhere we have Trey.
Yeah, I saw him show up.
I stole this from Trey becauseI just love what he's doing.
(17:54):
I think he took the he cancorrect me if I'm wrong, but he
took the Dementia Live trainingfrom Educate.
They do a couple of differenttrainings, but I think he just
really embraced it once he wentthrough the training and just
really wants to connect anddifferentiate himself with
dementia care.
He's done such an amazing jobwith his videos and he's
(18:15):
actually doing a series ofvideos and I wanted to share
kind of what he's doing and whatyou guys could do too across
your platforms.
This is LinkedIn and Facebook,I believe, again, making
yourself the expert.
You're the expert, youspecialize in this and you need
to tell the world.
So I really loved that he justtook this by the horns and made
(18:36):
it his own, so I really lovedthat.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
he just took this by the horns and made it his own.
He's doing a great job on thevideos.
It's Trey Jacobs from.
He's the owner of Comfort Care,so follow him on LinkedIn.
Every time I'm on LinkedIn,he's out there with those videos
and he is really getting hisname out there for his agency.
Yeah, you know that he ishelping clients with dementia.
He's doing a fantastic job.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yes, and that's one thing you said there is.
He's very consistent.
He's being very consistent withit.
That's why I knew, oh gosh, Ihave to use him as an example.
He's there all the time.
Every time I go into LinkedIn,he's right there with a new
video.
It pops up Yep, okay, all right.
And then don't stop there.
You can remarket folks withemail remarketing.
(19:16):
I should have put in anewsletter, for example.
These two are talking aboutyour caregiver training and how
they're experienced in dementiacare, continued training.
And it highlights gosh, my eyesare so bad it highlights
dementia care and how youspecialize in it, because I
can't read it, but you get theidea, and I did put it in pink
(19:37):
thinking I'd be able to see that, but I just can't see it.
And then in the newsletter sideI actually meant to screenshot
it at where it says 24-hour homecare.
I meant to screenshot it atdementia care.
I guess I missed it.
But look at what's within thisnewsletter.
It would lead back to all ofthose different service lines on
the website Plus.
(19:58):
If you look a little lower, yousee there's an Alzheimer's and
brain awareness month article.
So you're really sharing thisacross everywhere.
You're letting people know thatyou know about this, you care
about this.
This is what you specialize in.
You can offer this for them andtheir family members.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Okay, great, all right, oops, sorry, all right.
Now we're on to staff educationand training.
So why it matters?
Without formal training yourcaregivers are left figured out,
often leading to frustration,burnout, client disfuntation.
Your caregiver should leaveorientation with the ability to
understand what dementia is.
(20:35):
You're going to get somecaregivers that maybe took care
of a family member or theyworked in the field and they
have experience, but there'smany that really don't
understand dementia.
In your onboarding it's reallyimportant to have a specific
section of your onboarding withdementia training.
I know we with the home careagency that I worked in, we had
(20:57):
about a half hour of it, halfhour or so of it Our client care
coordinator.
She was a nurse and she spokeon dementia and really helped
them to understand how you helpsomebody with dementia and if
somebody never has before, theydon't understand the process and
how you have to redirect.
It's setting your agency apartcommunication techniques,
(21:18):
patience, understanding,redirecting there's just so
important.
If you don't understand how todeal with a client with dementia
and you send that caregiver tothat client, it could just
backfire on you.
We would have caregivers thathad a lot of dementia experience
and then we had some thatdidn't have any have caregivers
that had a lot of dementiaexperience and then we had some
(21:39):
that didn't have any.
So if we did get a client thathad dementia, we made sure that
we sent one of our clients thatknew how to handle them, because
it could cause a lot ofproblems if you send somebody
that does not understand it,especially if it has somebody
with behaviors, somebodywandering, somebody not wanting
to take their medicine, take abath, take a shower.
They need to know how toaddress those situations with
(22:00):
that and also using tools andaids.
Memory books looking at family Ialways loved.
We would always tell ourclients family members, have
your photo albums, they'reavailable for our caregivers.
They love to look at familypictures way back when their
family.
They love to reminisce.
(22:20):
It just makes them so happybecause that's what they
remember way, way back.
They don't remember the lastfive minutes but they do
remember their upbringing andtheir family and their mothers,
their brothers, their sisters.
Cue cards, sensory objectsLisa's going to talk about them
a little bit.
Music Many dementia care clientslove music, turning on the
(22:42):
music.
Some have music therapy, musictherapists that come to their
home, but music is always good,turning on those tunes from way
back or whatever they enjoy cancalm them.
Okay, yeah, so one importantthing that I learned this back
when I worked in my home careagency that the your local
(23:03):
Alzheimer's association.
They provide complimentaryeducational presentations on
dementia.
So you can have an in-servicewith your caregivers and you can
call the your local Alzheimer'sassociation and say say you'd
like to have somebody come anddo some dementia training.
They will send a trainedrepresentative to visit your
agency or wherever you have thein-service for your staff and
(23:25):
they'll do a presentation ondementia.
So we put the link here for tofind your local office If you
don't know about it, contactthem and connect with them,
because it's wonderful.
They have lots of informationand they don't charge anything.
You definitely have to do it alittle bit in advance, give them
the date, but please look themup.
They and it doesn't necessarilythey do dementia training.
(23:48):
They do all different,different situations.
They give you a lot ofdifferent topics, okay, and then
also the TIPA snow.
Many of you may have known,know about that, but the Teepa
Snow training.
Some agencies will have theircaregivers go through that.
And then, lisa, you found thisDementia Live Educate.
Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, oh, it's just.
It's exactly what I think thatTrey and maybe his franchise
uses it, but it's basically ait's like a virtual reality.
It's really sensory, specific,I feel like it looks like they
wear.
I don't know a lot about it,but you can look it up.
I know that they actually havegloves, they have glasses on and
(24:30):
I don't know if they have theirearmuffs or something like that
, but it just changes yoursenses and how you engage in
your space, and so I'm not 100%sure all that's involved, but
you can look it up more.
There's a video on the websitethat you can look at, and then
there's some different packagesthat you can look at.
It's not free like alls, butyou can also look up some other
(24:54):
resources, google some things.
I did find some others, but Ididn't have time to really
research them for you guys, butthere's others, and if you guys
have others, you can put them inthe chat too, that'd be helpful
.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah, and we're going to send you the PDFs with all
the links.
I went through the Teepa Snowtraining.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, we have someone else here who just put in the
chat the Teepa Snow training.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Oh, yes, lauren.
Yes, they train theircaregivers.
She's great.
So you want to attract theright people.
Using words like compassionate,patient memory care experience,
mission-driven work, make adifference every day for
somebody living with memory loss.
Screen for dementia passion.
(25:39):
During the interview process,asking them questions like how
do you handle confusion,repetition from a client, what
do you find most rewarding aboutdementia care?
So when you're interviewingthese caregivers, asking them
those questions, retentionstrategies for dementia
caregivers, emotional support,acknowledging the toll of
dementia.
Checking in with your caregivers, seeing how things are going
Sometimes these clients can be ahandful.
(26:00):
They could be a lot of work,they can get burnt out.
Checking in, seeing how thingsare going, how you can help.
Offer specialized training,offer ongoing dementia training,
like I said, having somebodycome to speak from the
Alzheimer's Association.
There's so many differentthings you can do to keep your
caregivers engaged in learninglearning how to handle clients
with dementia.
(26:21):
Appreciation and recognitions,shout outs, rewards, regular
praise for the work they do.
Send them every week.
Look at your caregivers and say, hey, who are you sending out a
little card to?
This week with a $5 Dunkin'Donut card.
Thank you for all you do, butletting them know that you
appreciate all they do because,like I said, not every client's
really easy.
Some of them are hard to handleand sometimes the dementia
(26:43):
clients could be a littledifficult to let them know you
appreciate what they do.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Okay, I think a good reward might be like a respite
day.
Yeah, I don't know, I'm justthrowing it out there like a
respite day.
Yeah, like a respite day, Idon't know, I'm just throwing it
out there because some folkscan be really difficult.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
And that's why they have to know how to handle them.
Yeah, so highlight a dementiacare career track.
Create a clear, compellingpathway with your agency.
Maybe call them the dementiacare specialist title.
After completing a set oftraining, include a step-by-step
program in your onboarding.
Basic training, mentorshipMaybe you have a really good
(27:23):
care, a few good caregivers thatare really experienced with
dementia.
Sending some of your newercaregivers out with those
caregivers and have them mentorthem, have them show them, have
them go for a four-hour shiftwith that caregiver so she can
show them how she handles, howshe redirects.
On-the-job training I thinkworks the best.
Pay while you learn.
(27:45):
Model Offer paid training.
Model Pay caregivers whilemaybe they complete a
dementia-specific certification.
Say you have the Alzheimer'sAssociation, come in and do a
speaking engagement and they'rethere for a couple hours.
Pay your caregivers Of courseyou don't want them to come in
for free, but letting them knowthat you're going to be paying
them.
Partner with the organizationslike Alzheimer's Association,
(28:05):
the Teepa Snow National Councilof Certified Dementia
Practitioners.
Also Partner with all theseagencies.
And if anybody has anyquestions, feel free to put them
in the chat.
And if anybody has anyquestions, feel free to put them
in the chat.
Yeah, partner with cna schools,community college senior centers
.
You're going to recruitcaregivers interested in special
training.
(28:25):
There may be caregivers thatare going for their cna
community colleges, maybenursing degrees.
Sponsor their certification inexchange for maybe six to 12
months employment commitment.
Market your company's focus oncompassionate dementia care and
your job ads.
Include client stories,testimonials a day in the life,
(28:46):
social posts showing how yourcaregiver makes a difference.
And social media recruitingworks too.
Running targeted ad campaigns,ads that say want to be a hero
for somebody living with memoryloss, we'll train you.
Apply today Using reels ofshowing your caregiver joy.
Team support, dementia-relatedtraining.
So again, putting that all inyour socials.
(29:09):
Advertising how you helpclients with dementia and offer
a tiered wage scale, for ifyou're, maybe you will pay a
caregiver one or three dollarsmore an hour if they're
certified in dementia care, ifthey're more experienced,
provide bonus incentives forcompleting refreshers or
(29:30):
continuing education.
Create a monthly spotlight foryour dementia champions.
Offer team badges, pins, shirtrecognition, advancing their
roles and again, allowing yourtop caregivers to mentor and
co-lead community trainings.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
I think that works great, Offering the $1 to $3
more an hour.
I think charging a little bitmore for the dementia,
Alzheimer's patient client isalso doable, Because you are
putting more into the caregiversand paying them more.
You certainly can charge alittle bit more for a client
with dementia or Alzheimer's aswell.
(30:08):
So that's something to keep inmind so that your margins stay.
You're not taking away yourmargins.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
paying the caregivers a little bit more, you can also
charge a little bit more forthese clients for sure, yeah,
maybe you're charging like $5more an hour and then you can
give your caregiver $2 or $3,but definitely because some of
them are hard to handle.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
They are and those caregivers get tired.
I also, when we would havesomebody with Alzheimer's, we
would have more caregivers.
I know that we need consistencyand that's really important.
But if it was a 12 hour,instead of doing two or three,
we might have an extra one thatwe would put in there as well,
just because it's hard for them.
If it's a really difficultclient that if they get they're
(30:47):
not combative, but they couldthey push right up to being
combative.
You say the wrong thing andthey just lose it.
Having a couple of morecaregivers in in the rotation
but they're with you a while thepatient, the client, they start
to recognize them.
You want consistency, butsometimes just one more
caregiver in the mix helps alittle bit with burnout too.
(31:08):
That's something to think of.
Give someone a little bit of abreak.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Okay.
And then again, ongoing supportand supervision weekly
check-ins.
I think it's really importantto making sure you check in with
these clients, especially yourdementia clients.
A lot of them are their 24-7clients, popping in, checking in
to see how things are going,asking the caregivers is there
anything we can do to help you?
What support do you need?
Let them know that you'resupporting them.
I think that's really important.
(31:32):
If they don't have somebodythat they don't know, that you
know what they're working hard.
But I think by sending somebodyto one of your team members
over to check in and see howthings are going, and offering
if you can support them in anyway, block shifts, flexible
scheduling, just like John said,to reduce burnout, maybe adding
another caregiver in the mix.
Say, you have the 12-hourshifts, it's a long time.
(31:53):
Maybe you do three eight-hourshifts just to give them a
little bit of a break.
Again, creating a team leader,team dementia leader, and these
are some again externalpartnerships to explore.
Okay, all right.
So now this is the fun part.
Lisa and I had fun doing this.
So, instead of offeringcompanionship, you want to show
(32:16):
your families how you're behindtheir care.
We found some cool itemsavailable for your caregivers to
use while caring for yourdementia clients.
Now, I know when I worked inhome care, in our office we had
this really big like toy box andshelves of all these different
items that our caregivers couldstop in the office and come and
pick up puzzles or coloringbooks or fidget tools.
(32:40):
But we had supplies for themand we also had our client care
coordinator who do visits to ourcaregivers.
Would bring a little bag of funwith her to the client.
Having some of these thingsavailable to help your
caregivers with the clients itreally does help.
There's photo cue cards, memoryboxes, music, photo cue cards,
(33:04):
memory boxes, music puzzles,fidget tools, coloring books,
whiteboards.
I know we had a lot of clientsthey had that whiteboard and
they had that calendar and theyknew that Susie and Johnny and
Sally what day they were coming.
That's important to them.
Having a visual large piecepuzzles, coloring books, music
therapy again, playlists using aSpotify or YouTube playlist to
help them calm down, and I'mgoing to have Lisa go over all
(33:25):
of these fun things.
We're going to send you theselinks, but we found some really
cool things on Amazon, and alsothe Alzheimer's store has some
really fun things.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah, so if you dive in and start looking, you'll
find a whole bunch of things andthere's so much.
And you mentioned earlier goingto the Goodwill.
I think that's such a greatalternative too, because a lot
of this stuff can get reallyexpensive.
But we did find some lessexpensive options.
But, like the fidget stuff isreally cool.
There's like fidget boxes andyou name it.
(33:56):
So just looking at thedifferent categories here dining
, right, so having these littleplacemats and I have a couple of
visuals for you guys on acouple of slides over, but I'm
giving you like the categoryhelpful products and where to
buy them.
These aren't the only places,obviously, just to give you like
a one-stop shop so you can lookfor these things.
But dining making a meal lookappetizing by just making sure
(34:21):
that the plating looks nice,it's as simple as that a bright
red plate versus a white plateand a white egg and white rice,
or it makes it look veryappealing to them.
And so, looking at differentthings like that, for sundowning
, there's this cool thing.
I would not have even known itexisted.
It's a light therapy box.
(34:41):
It's a little I don't rememberif it was that expensive, but
it's really just like a lightthat looks like it's morning
time, that you can sit and sitat your table and you don't feel
so disoriented towards theevening.
And lots of other things toohere as you can see memory games
, there's the mind care store,senior style always home
(35:02):
connected plus sensory directsun box, alzheimer's store, so
all of these different placesKeeping busy.
There's fidget blankets, whichI thought were really cool,
sensory puzzles, weighted snakesI thought I said something else
.
I thought I said weightedblankets, but I don't know.
Weighted snakes, routines.
So clocks there's like thesecool clocks that they cannot
(35:24):
change the time or anything likethat, and there's not much to
it.
It's like just this box and itlooks really cool.
I really liked it a lot.
There's a clock and a radiothat they just look so cool.
They're very simple but ithelps with.
You can play music.
It helps with their routine,all of those different things.
Music therapy which youmentioned earlier.
(35:45):
Youtube just play it.
You go find a channel and playYouTube.
You can also get an MP3 player.
Or check out this Mind Carestore.
Doll therapy I've seen this alot.
There's some real looking,realistic baby dolls.
There's a sale on some.
I think it's at ParadiseGalleries here that I listed.
These are so great People usethem for, even for PTSD.
(36:08):
They cuddle them, they you knowthey're remembering a different
time and so I think that thoseare.
It's just the sweetest Stuffedanimal therapy robotic cats and
dogs that can.
They can move their arms,things like that.
Or there's look at Tessashowing hers and you just pet
them and love them and theyreally love this it's.
It really just helps keep themcalm and it just brings them
(36:31):
into that other, another placethat they're, they were used to.
So all of these little where tobuys you can look this up and
see where those things are.
So I would really suggest thatyou keep this list for families
too, especially so that they putyour logo on it.
Print it out.
I probably should have made itprettier, but I think this works
for what it is and just givethat to families and say this
(36:53):
might be something that wouldwork really well.
Okay, tess said from their localoffice of aging, the aging
agency, we can get theanimatronic dog or cat for our
clients at no cost.
That's really cool.
Look that up too.
What is it the independentagency on aging in your local
area?
Look for those, because youmight have the same sort of
(37:16):
program.
Okay, this is page two.
Yeah, okay, so same kind ofsetup here the category helpful
products and where to buy them.
So they have reminiscence kits.
That's so cool.
You can come up with a wholebunch of stuff there role play
tools like aprons and a phone,and maybe give a typewriter or
(37:36):
something like that gettingdressed, so that can be
sometimes a challenge, atypewriter, something like that
getting dressed, so that can besometimes a challenge.
And so there are so many.
I actually was surprised at howmany websites there were to
find adaptive clothing for folksthat struggling with cloutings
or zippers or things like that.
Toileting, raised toilet seatsthis is like stuff that we
(37:56):
already know about, but folkswith dementia need these too.
Showering same type ofsituation.
But think about getting out andabout like wearable GPS.
There's some that you can putin the shoe, there's some that
you can just add to anundershirt and there's special
undershirts that can just putthis little GPS tracker Back in
(38:18):
the day we used to just write onthe inside of the shirt and
different things like that,which still work, but with GPS
technology you can really keeptrack of folks.
Faucet safety I wouldn't haveeven thought of that, except for
with my grandmother, forexample.
We have to make it so shecouldn't cook.
Get rid of the gas line and howthey did it and what they did.
Get rid of the knobs on thestove Little things like that.
(38:42):
And then faucet safety, sosomeone doesn't burn themselves.
They actually have anti-scalddevices.
I didn't even know, but theseare so important to keeping
seniors safe at home, especiallyif they have dementia.
No cook solutions, obviously,we know these.
There's some frozen mealdeliveries.
There's some fresh, not frozen,options as well, and then
nutrition shakes, anything thatdoesn't involve cooking.
(39:04):
And then rummaging kits.
I used to call it nesting, butmy grandmother used to rummage
from one box to the next box andjust create these piles of
things, and she was sointerested in it.
She loved to do this all thetime and she would sometimes
share what she was looking atwith us and we would engage in
(39:27):
that.
But photos, keys, everythingimaginable necklaces, beads, you
name it were in these boxes.
There was really no rhyme orreason.
It was just looking at things,touching them, feeling them,
putting them back into a newpile, and it was just amazing to
watch her do that because,again, we didn't really
understand it at the time, butshe would.
(39:49):
Just, it was something that sheloved to do, looking at her
things.
Maybe she was rememberingthings, but it was very
comforting for her.
So all of these things again,you can look at the where to buy
those two pages.
I would definitely print outand look at them first and make
(40:09):
sure you agree with all theselinks and print them out for
your clients and their familymembers.
Okay, here's our fun things.
Two visuals so I really lovethe fidget blanket.
I would probably play with thatall the time actually, because
I can't sit still.
So that's a really cool thing.
It has different buttons andI'm sorry buttons and latches
and pens and I don't know awhole bunch of things there.
Dementia coloring book I thinkthese are really easy.
(40:32):
They're big, there's not a lotof detail, so it's just a big
color book.
Memory games those are reallyfun too.
And paint with water.
I think that's cool.
You can use that over and overagain.
You just use your paintbrushwith water.
It colors the, for example, theduck, exactly as it looks now,
and then I guess when it driesit goes away.
So I think that's really cool.
(40:52):
You can use that again andagain.
There's Amazon links there.
And then the next page.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
And we had.
Just, I want to add, we had asenior community that was an
independent living Ladies wouldcollect old anything buttons,
zippers, fabric and they wouldmake fidget, little fidget books
and they would give them.
They'd give me a call and say,hey, we've got some more for you
to pick up and we would deliverthem to our clients.
They, they, they love doingthat kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, here's the plating Very cool, oh yeah, the
plating.
This placemat it's a non-slipplacemat and it's just a
reminder as to especially, Iguess, the era that we're
dealing with.
Right, they did set the tableall the time.
I don't know if you do it asmuch now, but they did set the
table and so this is a greatreminder.
Probably will bring them backto a ton of like family meal
(41:42):
memories, but so just like helpwith that.
And then these bright colorsthese really what I was looking
for a hundred percent, because Idid see some other ones, but
these are really cool.
They're bright, they make yourmeal just, I don't know, it
helps, it stand out, it looksappealing.
So if you're ever havingtrouble with someone eating, and
I feel if you do it in verysmall portions and don't mix the
(42:05):
portions, don't mix the foodslike berries great, and then you
can go to something else yogurtgreat, but don't overwhelm the
senses, right.
I think that's the key takeawayfor these.
But these are really cool,they're not too expensive and
it'll make a difference.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
This is my favorite the kitties and the babies.
The babies and the kitties.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Yes, these are just super cute.
Again, it just really helpswith comfort and just love and
feeling, just needed maybe.
So these are really superhelpful.
I used to see these in homesall the time, especially the
cats.
I feel like I saw the cats themost, but I would see people
petting them and before I reallyknew what it was, I was like,
(42:51):
hmm, but now that I understand,now that I understand that's
what's going on, it's a realcomfort to them and I get it.
And this one, this Perfect Pets, I think it breathes.
That's why the little you see,the little detail there, it
breathes and I wonder if itpurrs, because if it does, I
might buy one and there's a lotof different price ranges.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
I think this one was at the all-time restore but you
can find them like $100 to $40.
And maybe you have a few foryour office and just share them.
We're not saying you buy themfor all your clients, but there
were some that we found thatwere quite reasonable and I
think they do love it.
It comforts them.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Yeah, you could have a little like checkout system.
Thanks for taking what where Idon't know how people would feel
about that is maybe cleanlinessand things like that, but we
could maybe like dry clean them,I don't know, and things like
that.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
But we could maybe like dry clean them I don't know
, we'd have to look at that, seehow you keep them clean.
Or just have them go and visit,do friendly visits like a real
yeah, exactly, all right, sogreat.
We're going to send you all thelinks, the PDFs, and you're
going to have all the links.
So we want walk to endAlzheimer's.
Many of you may be involved inthe walk.
I think it's a great way tojoin as a team.
You can get company t-shirts,you can invite family members of
(44:04):
your clients.
You can have a big team.
You can promote it on yoursocials, your Facebook, your
LinkedIn, your company website.
I added the link here.
I think there's different times.
I think it's in October here inNew York, I don't know, but
you're going to have to look tosee where your walk is every
year.
But it's really fun.
You invite your caregivers andcaregiver families.
(44:26):
It's a great way for you topromote that you help people
with dementia.
So we thought it was importantto add this.
If you're not doing it, pleasedo.
I see Tess shaking her head.
I think I've seen you postingthat you're doing a test and
you've got a big team goingahead and you're raising money
for a really good cause.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Okay, we've got the link here that we'll share Some
people do this every year andthey really market the heck out
of it to get people to jointheir team and help donate and
things like that.
I think there's even like a.
There's like a donation levelthat you're striving for.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Very cool.
Okay, all right.
So thank you everybody.
We want to remind you we haveour ASN 90 day mastery program.
It's a 12 week sales trainingclass.
I do the teaching for that.
We have August 14th and August20th.
We still have some spots open,so if anybody is interested,
please let us know.
(45:17):
We would love to have you joinus.
And before we go into theleave-behinds, as I said,
remember in the chat box we aregoing to pick somebody that is
in attendance today to theMastery Circle to win September.
Thanks everybody for joining ustoday.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
You'll get the replay soon.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
We will announce the winner.
Make sure in the chat box ifyou want to be included in the
fun.
Leave behind, say yes and wewill put your name in the chat
One more time.
Yep, all right, everybody.
Have a great week.
Thanks for coming.
We'll see you All right, takecare, you guys.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
See you next time.
My name is Annette Ziegler.
I think I know most of you here.
I've been with ASN over a year20 plus years home care and home
care marketing experience.
I teach the sales trainingclasses here at ASN our 12-week
proven sales training class andI see, like I said, I see some
of my class members here.
Welcome, we're excited to haveyou here today.
(00:21):
We're going to be talking aboutdementia and how your agency
can stand out and help yourdementia clients.
Lisa.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, I'm Lisa Marseillais.
I've been here for two yearsand was in home care forever and
a day, and I'm just happy to behere, I'm happy to be on this
side Also just helping you guyswith your growth.
And I just want to dig intothis dementia care.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Hi I'm.
Dahlia.
Welcome everybody.
It's good to see we've gotquite a.
I see some familiar faces and acouple of new faces too.
Welcome.
I've also been in home care fora long time.
You can lean in on ourexperience.
I love home care, I love yourmission and all the things that
you do to help the seniors stayat home and stay independent, so
(01:07):
thank you for doing that.
It's important work and Valerieis going to be a little bit
late today.
If she makes it, she hassomething come up.
Danette, you're going to berunning the show.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yes, I am Myself and Lisa, so here we go.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
All right.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Okay, housekeeping Lines muted and less speaking.
Share stories, experience tips,ask questions, make
recommendations and tell us whatyou want to know.
Our agenda, why specializeddementia care matters.
Dementia-focused home care setsyour agency apart Branding and
marketing dementia care,training and staff empowerment,
(01:46):
retaining great dementiacaregivers and some really cool
recommended tools and productsthat we found for you August,
september and Octoberleave-behinds, and we will
announce this again at the endof the class.
But we always pick a winner.
We put everybody that'sattending the mastery today, we
put your name in a hat and wepick a winner.
Then you, everybody that'sattending the mastery today, we
put your name in a hat and wepick a winner.
(02:06):
Then you will receive somecustomized leave-behinds, for I
think we're probably givingSeptember I would think by now,
right, because we're going intoAugust.
So if you are interested inreceiving the leave-behinds, say
yes in the chat box.
You have to one.
You have to use theleave-behinds.
We want to see you out theremarketing with them.
(02:26):
Send us pictures.
So please put your name in thechat box and Lisa will start
writing everybody's name down.
Okay, we were talking about wetake care of being in home care.
We help a lot of clients withdementia.
So it's important Families arelooking for agencies that
(02:50):
specialize in dementia care.
Most agencies offer generalservices, assistance with
transportation, companionships,but sometimes they lack the
structure of training and thetools to properly support
individuals with dementia.
There could be lack ofdementia-specific training.
Many caregivers aren't trainedto recognize stages, to manage
(03:11):
behaviors, to redirect, tocommunicate effectively with
clients experiencing cognitivedecline, and we know that.
I know when I worked in homecare and we had a client that
had dementia, it was reallyimportant for us to pair that
client with a caregiver that hadexperience and knew how to
handle somebody with dementia.
So it's very important.
(03:32):
Inadequate planning care plansare often too generic, ignoring
the unique needs of memoryimpaired clients.
As we know, some of thesememory care clients have
specific needs.
They can have agitation, theymay not trust somebody.
There's so many things and youreally have to make sure that
your care plans have everythingin them so your caregiver is
(03:53):
prepared to help this patient.
Poor consistency high turnoverrate.
High caregiver turnover ratethey get burned out.
Lack of ongoing education thatleads to fragmented care and
confusion.
For clients Like you have tohave consistency, especially
with somebody with dementia.
You want to make sure you havethat same caregiver or
(04:13):
caregivers.
Without proper safeguards,dementia clients are at higher
risk for wandering medicationerrors, agitation and falls Okay
, agitation and falls Okay.
So we want you to set your homecare agency apart In today's
market.
Simply offering Alzheimer'ssupport or memory care on your
website isn't enough.
(04:33):
True differentiation meansdelivering a level of
dementia-informed care that ismeasurably better, emotionally
deeper and clearly communicatedto families, referral sources in
your community.
You build a recognized dementiacare program.
Give it a name.
Examples memory care program,stay at home with Alzheimer's,
(04:58):
moments of joy, dementiaengagement service whatever you
want to name it, but let themknow that you are ready to help
their family members or theirloved ones with dementia.
You want to have adifferentiator.
A formal named program givesyour agency identity,
credibility and brand value,offer specialized caregiving.
Families are looking forexpertise in agencies that are
(05:20):
visibly investing in dementia.
Training will trust fasterFamilies.
They're looking for somebody.
They're tired, they're burntout.
They're looking for an agencythat has caregivers that can
help them, that understanddementia and that understand how
to work with these clients.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I was just going to say.
Storytelling comes into playhere, really based on your, what
you've had happen in the past,like what your experiences are,
and then, like we talked aboutwhile we were putting this
together, sorting socks was onethat we came up with and I've
used that too, where the personis just so fidgety, but they
want to be helpful as well.
(05:59):
They still have that piece ofthem.
Maybe it was mom to seven orsomething and she was used to
doing all these different thingsand she wants to be helping.
So I think, finding out a lotabout that person and then using
storytelling, oh yeah, in myexperience I had someone just
like her and this is what we didto put something together for
her to make her feel good,comfortable, useful, in her home
(06:21):
.
I think that helps a lot usefulin her home.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I think that helps a lot.
Yeah, and also somebody thatunderstands how to redirect.
If somebody not telling them noand going along with the story,
we always said it was okay,it's called a therapeutic lie.
It's okay to just go along withthem.
If they're telling yousomething silly, just go along
with them.
Okay, that's great.
Tell me about that time,because many times they're
thinking they don't rememberwhat they just ate for breakfast
(06:48):
or lunch, but they do rememberway, way back when.
So if that makes them happy andthey're talking about something
, you have to have a caregiverthat understands.
No, the redirecting is reallybig.
They may be saying I want to gohome or I want to go here, okay
, we'll go home, but you knowwhat?
We're going to go make somelunch right now.
Just change the subject.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Valerie and I were just at the Home Care
Association in Florida, the bigconference that they have once a
year.
We presented for two differentbreakout sessions and one was on
branding your agency and thedifferentiator.
If you do decide thatAlzheimer's training,
alzheimer's services are goingto be your differentiator, if
you do decide that Alzheimer'straining, alzheimer's services
are going to be yourdifferentiator and Annette
(07:29):
mentioned this name it something.
Once it has a name, people takeit seriously and make sure it's
everywhere.
Make sure that your marketerthat's going out has that in the
paper, the lead behinds thatthey're giving out.
Make sure it's on your Facebook, your LinkedIn, your website.
So make sure that everybody inthe paper, the leave behinds
that they're giving out, makesure it's on your Facebook, your
LinkedIn, your website.
So make sure that everybody inthe company understands that
(07:50):
this is our differentiator, thisis our mission, whatever it is.
Make sure that it's through allchannels, all people and that's
the tone from the receptionist.
Even they should know that'syour specialty, because an adult
child might call and say, hey,my mom has Alzheimer's.
You guys specialize in thatright.
The receptionist should knowthat.
Everybody on the team.
(08:10):
So I just can't stress thatenough.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Anyway, sorry to interrupt.
No, and I agree.
And actually, as a home careagency you take all types of
clients but, as we know, clientswith dementia tend to lead to
24-7s some really good hours.
So you want to specialize indementia.
Many of these people, they wantto stay home but they're unsafe
.
Staying home, it could be somereally good hours.
I remember we had clients thatwe had for years that were 24-7.
(08:34):
They were physically totallyfine but they were unsafe to be
left alone.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, branding and marketingyour agency for dementia care,
just like Dawn said, instead oflistening, to dementia care.
I give it a brand power bynaming it.
Create a program, an identity.
(08:56):
Build a dementia-centeredwebsite.
We offer Alzheimer's care.
We have trained dementiacaregivers.
We offer Alzheimer's care.
We have trained dementiacaregivers.
Use emotionally driven contentmarketing.
Leverage with your referralpartnerships, agencies that
specialize in dementia care.
You can create preferredrelationship with memory clinics
(09:17):
, neurology offices,geriatricians, elder law
attorneys, alzheimer's supportgroups, hospitals, snf, rehab
discharges.
I'm going to add in geriatriccare managers, but there's so
many people that you couldconnect with.
All of these people are workingwith dementia patients so you
could target with them, partnerwith them.
Website updates yourleave-behinds dementia-specific
(09:41):
leave-behinds for your referralpartners, letting them know that
you specialize in dementiaEducation, having lunch and
learns in services, talkingabout how your caregivers are
trained and how it can helppeople with dementia and
storytelling, telling them abouta specific client and what you
do and just bringing.
I know, lisa, you were justtalking about the sorting socks.
(10:01):
We've had a client.
You're going to get dementiacare clients that have behaviors
.
It happens and we had agentleman.
He really he just had reallybad behaviors.
He loved to put together clocksand take apart radios and he
just wanted to work with hisfingers.
So our client care coordinatorshe was so great with working
(10:22):
with dementia clients.
She brought over.
She went to Goodwill andbrought over all these old
clocks and radios and put themon a table in his home and, boom
, he was like a new person.
He had something to do with,something he related with, so
trying to figure out how youcould connect with these people
and he, in his behaviors he justhe felt like he was back in the
(10:42):
day when he was fixing hisclocks.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
That's what he had done for a living.
Okay, that's so cool.
Yeah, it's just like there wasa man, too, who had worked in an
office.
I think it was like mortgage orsomething, and so setting up a
little desk with a phone and hispaperwork was the complete game
changer for him.
It gave him purpose again.
That's what he remembered, sohe was like wondering where's
all these things that I used todo?
I remember this one thing andI'm fixated on it, and so
(11:11):
creating that environment forhim just was a complete game
changer and made him so happy.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And don't forget too.
I know Annette said you can goto memory care units and that
kind of thing.
I know we think they're inmemory care and they're getting
lots of attention, but there aresome that might have sundowners
and they're up all night.
We took a terrible woman whohad sundowners and she would get
up in the middle of the night,not up.
She was up and just startplaying the piano and wake up
(11:37):
the whole building and so wewould come there overnight and
just we'd do overnight awakesjust to keep her busy.
We had another gentleman thatwas 55, the engineer, and he had
early onset dementia.
They thought so bad they had toput him in memory care and he
would sit in there in the roomswith all of the other residents
(11:58):
and noticed one time that theanother resident's wheelchair,
the wheel there was somethingwhen he's an engineer, right, he
could see from across the roomsomething was wrong with it.
He went and just picked up thewheelchair and turned it upside
down.
She was sitting in it becausehe just wanted to fix that wheel
.
He meant no harm but he wasengineering his mind and so when
(12:19):
he did that they told his wifehe can't stay here unless he's a
caregiver 24-7.
So we were in the building 24-7with this man and we did that
for probably a year, I think,before.
I'm not even sure.
I think they moved to wheretheir kids are, but you just
never know what could happen.
I think it's a really importantarea to focus on, for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Yeah, lots of opportunities in memory care to
get clients.
Lots of opportunities Because,like you said, even though
there's staff there, there'stimes where they need a
one-on-one, they're just notthinking directly, all right, so
next I'm going to have Lisatake over now for the kind of
talk, a little bit about how tobrand and market your agency for
(13:00):
dementia.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I did want to just touch on something that Tess
said here and Tess said here andTess will answer the other
question later but she said theyhad a client who was a builder
by trade and so they got himLego building sets.
I think that's just a greatidea making little models.
I love it.
Yeah, you definitely have tomove with whatever their need is
.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
You've got to figure it out, my little the
engineering guy.
He figured out how to get inthe code and he could get
through the door.
Some marty pants watch, I don'tknow, but he got through.
The caregiver was therestopping, but yeah, he, that was
enough.
He came in was because he wascracking the code and getting
past the door.
So anyway, that's.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, okay.
So branding and marketing youragency with Dementia Care.
Talk about Dementia Careeverywhere.
If it's not on your website, itdidn't happen.
That's my new saying.
If you didn't write about it,if it's not written online, it
doesn't exist for you, and soyou have to talk about it
everywhere.
Couple of screenshots of somedifferent places that we help
(14:04):
people mention these things anddifferentiate themselves across
online platforms.
So here here's her website andDementia Home Care.
That is one of the pages andthat's an entire page dedicated
to this service, as you can seethe other services too, but it's
dedicated there.
So there's a ton of content onthis page and it talks all about
(14:24):
Dementia Home Care, and sothat's one there.
So there's a ton of content onthis page and it talks all about
dementia home care, and sothat's one way.
And then, here again, this ison the website.
This is I think this is a it'slike a location page that talks
all about dementia care.
So it's talking about thelocation you want to show up for
in an online search, and inaddition to dementia care.
(14:45):
So these are the types ofthings you want to see on your
website and across platforms.
Next slide Blog content tosocial media.
So blogging on your website andthen making sure that it's
pushed everywhere, right?
So all those other channelsthat you have your brand on or
you have a page for you want tomake sure that's seen there too,
(15:08):
and the idea is that oncesomeone sees it on that platform
, they click on the link and itwill go back to your website.
So again in a search you willshow up any of these.
See all the words here.
You know that how Alzheimer'scare can help your senior parent
live at home.
Imagine someone searching that.
That's going to help you showup for that search.
So you want to mention iteverywhere you possibly can Next
(15:30):
slide.
Okay, this is something that Ithink he's here today Actually,
I saw him here, but he sent usthis, so he's in one of our
programs so I can grab thisstuff and I know the stories
behind them but sends us hiscompany news, which was their
walk to end Alzheimer's and theyhad their own team yeah, their
(15:51):
own team and what we do is wepost it on their blog and then
we push it to their social forthem.
So you could have a company dothis for you as well.
So to make sure that this isseen across platform, but this
shows everyone that, yes, theyspecialize and they care about
Alzheimer's dementia, and soanother way to make sure it's
across platform, everywhere thatpeople can find you, and it
(16:14):
links back to your website wherethey can have your contact
information.
Read more about you.
Fill out a form, whatever thecase may be.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah Post it on your Facebook, your Instagram, your
LinkedIn, everywhere.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yes, yes, all the socials, all of them, everywhere
.
Another way is to sharethird-party articles, post
real-time community engagement,what you saw on the other slide,
and then oops, I guess I mighthave chopped that one off a
little bit that last photo orimage but post and brand so
branding yourself with that,whatever it is, dementia care or
(16:50):
memory care moments orsomething like that, some sort
of title with your company nameobviously.
Like that, some sort of titlewith your company name obviously
Third-party articles.
This is just informative.
It does lead to anotherperson's website or another
website, but it does have somegood information.
You don't want to lead awayfrom your website too much, but
you can share articles like thisas well and then post real-time
(17:10):
community engagement.
You see, this is awesome.
They went to this particulargroup, went to Silverado Memory
Care and they had I can't readit, sorry, guys, but I don't
have my glasses on- they hadlunch at a memory care.
It was like a lunch and learn orsomething like that.
So that's awesome, and peoplethat are following you on your
socials really want to see yoursmiling faces and what you're
(17:32):
doing out in the community.
They love it and they're goingto comment, share, reply or just
like it, which really helpswith engagement and push your
brand and your company furtheronline.
Okay, and the next slide, andhere we have Trey.
Yeah, I saw him show up.
I stole this from Trey becauseI just love what he's doing.
(17:54):
I think he took the he cancorrect me if I'm wrong, but he
took the Dementia Live trainingfrom Educate.
They do a couple of differenttrainings, but I think he just
really embraced it once he wentthrough the training and just
really wants to connect anddifferentiate himself with
dementia care.
He's done such an amazing jobwith his videos and he's
(18:15):
actually doing a series ofvideos and I wanted to share
kind of what he's doing and whatyou guys could do too across
your platforms.
This is LinkedIn and Facebook,I believe, again, making
yourself the expert.
You're the expert, youspecialize in this and you need
to tell the world.
So I really loved that he justtook this by the horns and made
(18:36):
it his own, so I really lovedthat.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
he just took this by the horns and made it his own.
He's doing a great job on thevideos.
It's Trey Jacobs from.
He's the owner of Comfort Care,so follow him on LinkedIn.
Every time I'm on LinkedIn,he's out there with those videos
and he is really getting hisname out there for his agency.
Yeah, you know that he ishelping clients with dementia.
He's doing a fantastic job.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yes, and that's one thing you said there is.
He's very consistent.
He's being very consistent withit.
That's why I knew, oh gosh, Ihave to use him as an example.
He's there all the time.
Every time I go into LinkedIn,he's right there with a new
video.
It pops up Yep, okay, all right.
And then don't stop there.
You can remarket folks withemail remarketing.
(19:16):
I should have put in anewsletter, for example.
These two are talking aboutyour caregiver training and how
they're experienced in dementiacare, continued training.
And it highlights gosh, my eyesare so bad it highlights
dementia care and how youspecialize in it, because I
can't read it, but you get theidea, and I did put it in pink
(19:37):
thinking I'd be able to see that, but I just can't see it.
And then in the newsletter sideI actually meant to screenshot
it at where it says 24-hour homecare.
I meant to screenshot it atdementia care.
I guess I missed it.
But look at what's within thisnewsletter.
It would lead back to all ofthose different service lines on
the website Plus.
(19:58):
If you look a little lower, yousee there's an Alzheimer's and
brain awareness month article.
So you're really sharing thisacross everywhere.
You're letting people know thatyou know about this, you care
about this.
This is what you specialize in.
You can offer this for them andtheir family members.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Okay, great, all right, oops, sorry, all right.
Now we're on to staff educationand training.
So why it matters?
Without formal training yourcaregivers are left figured out,
often leading to frustration,burnout, client disfuntation.
Your caregiver should leaveorientation with the ability to
understand what dementia is.
(20:35):
You're going to get somecaregivers that maybe took care
of a family member or theyworked in the field and they
have experience, but there'smany that really don't
understand dementia.
In your onboarding it's reallyimportant to have a specific
section of your onboarding withdementia training.
I know we with the home careagency that I worked in, we had
(20:57):
about a half hour of it, halfhour or so of it Our client care
coordinator.
She was a nurse and she spokeon dementia and really helped
them to understand how you helpsomebody with dementia and if
somebody never has before, theydon't understand the process and
how you have to redirect.
It's setting your agency apartcommunication techniques,
(21:18):
patience, understanding,redirecting there's just so
important.
If you don't understand how todeal with a client with dementia
and you send that caregiver tothat client, it could just
backfire on you.
We would have caregivers thathad a lot of dementia experience
and then we had some thatdidn't have any have caregivers
that had a lot of dementiaexperience and then we had some
(21:39):
that didn't have any.
So if we did get a client thathad dementia, we made sure that
we sent one of our clients thatknew how to handle them, because
it could cause a lot ofproblems if you send somebody
that does not understand it,especially if it has somebody
with behaviors, somebodywandering, somebody not wanting
to take their medicine, take abath, take a shower.
They need to know how toaddress those situations with
(22:00):
that and also using tools andaids.
Memory books looking at family Ialways loved.
We would always tell ourclients family members, have
your photo albums, they'reavailable for our caregivers.
They love to look at familypictures way back when their
family.
They love to reminisce.
(22:20):
It just makes them so happybecause that's what they
remember way, way back.
They don't remember the lastfive minutes but they do
remember their upbringing andtheir family and their mothers,
their brothers, their sisters.
Cue cards, sensory objectsLisa's going to talk about them
a little bit.
Music Many dementia care clientslove music, turning on the
(22:42):
music.
Some have music therapy, musictherapists that come to their
home, but music is always good,turning on those tunes from way
back or whatever they enjoy cancalm them.
Okay, yeah, so one importantthing that I learned this back
when I worked in my home careagency that the your local
(23:03):
Alzheimer's association.
They provide complimentaryeducational presentations on
dementia.
So you can have an in-servicewith your caregivers and you can
call the your local Alzheimer'sassociation and say say you'd
like to have somebody come anddo some dementia training.
They will send a trainedrepresentative to visit your
agency or wherever you have thein-service for your staff and
(23:25):
they'll do a presentation ondementia.
So we put the link here for tofind your local office If you
don't know about it, contactthem and connect with them,
because it's wonderful.
They have lots of informationand they don't charge anything.
You definitely have to do it alittle bit in advance, give them
the date, but please look themup.
They and it doesn't necessarilythey do dementia training.
(23:48):
They do all different,different situations.
They give you a lot ofdifferent topics, okay, and then
also the TIPA snow.
Many of you may have known,know about that, but the Teepa
Snow training.
Some agencies will have theircaregivers go through that.
And then, lisa, you found thisDementia Live Educate.
Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, oh, it's just.
It's exactly what I think thatTrey and maybe his franchise
uses it, but it's basically ait's like a virtual reality.
It's really sensory, specific,I feel like it looks like they
wear.
I don't know a lot about it,but you can look it up.
I know that they actually havegloves, they have glasses on and
(24:30):
I don't know if they have theirearmuffs or something like that
, but it just changes yoursenses and how you engage in
your space, and so I'm not 100%sure all that's involved, but
you can look it up more.
There's a video on the websitethat you can look at, and then
there's some different packagesthat you can look at.
It's not free like alls, butyou can also look up some other
(24:54):
resources, google some things.
I did find some others, but Ididn't have time to really
research them for you guys, butthere's others, and if you guys
have others, you can put them inthe chat too, that'd be helpful
.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah, and we're going to send you the PDFs with all
the links.
I went through the Teepa Snowtraining.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, we have someone else here who just put in the
chat the Teepa Snow training.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Oh, yes, lauren.
Yes, they train theircaregivers.
She's great.
So you want to attract theright people.
Using words like compassionate,patient memory care experience,
mission-driven work, make adifference every day for
somebody living with memory loss.
Screen for dementia passion.
(25:39):
During the interview process,asking them questions like how
do you handle confusion,repetition from a client, what
do you find most rewarding aboutdementia care?
So when you're interviewingthese caregivers, asking them
those questions, retentionstrategies for dementia
caregivers, emotional support,acknowledging the toll of
dementia.
Checking in with your caregivers, seeing how things are going
Sometimes these clients can be ahandful.
(26:00):
They could be a lot of work,they can get burnt out.
Checking in, seeing how thingsare going, how you can help.
Offer specialized training,offer ongoing dementia training,
like I said, having somebodycome to speak from the
Alzheimer's Association.
There's so many differentthings you can do to keep your
caregivers engaged in learninglearning how to handle clients
with dementia.
(26:21):
Appreciation and recognitions,shout outs, rewards, regular
praise for the work they do.
Send them every week.
Look at your caregivers and say, hey, who are you sending out a
little card to?
This week with a $5 Dunkin'Donut card.
Thank you for all you do, butletting them know that you
appreciate all they do because,like I said, not every client's
really easy.
Some of them are hard to handleand sometimes the dementia
(26:43):
clients could be a littledifficult to let them know you
appreciate what they do.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Okay, I think a good reward might be like a respite
day.
Yeah, I don't know, I'm justthrowing it out there like a
respite day.
Yeah, like a respite day, Idon't know, I'm just throwing it
out there because some folkscan be really difficult.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
And that's why they have to know how to handle them.
Yeah, so highlight a dementiacare career track.
Create a clear, compellingpathway with your agency.
Maybe call them the dementiacare specialist title.
After completing a set oftraining, include a step-by-step
program in your onboarding.
Basic training, mentorshipMaybe you have a really good
(27:23):
care, a few good caregivers thatare really experienced with
dementia.
Sending some of your newercaregivers out with those
caregivers and have them mentorthem, have them show them, have
them go for a four-hour shiftwith that caregiver so she can
show them how she handles, howshe redirects.
On-the-job training I thinkworks the best.
Pay while you learn.
(27:45):
Model Offer paid training.
Model Pay caregivers whilemaybe they complete a
dementia-specific certification.
Say you have the Alzheimer'sAssociation, come in and do a
speaking engagement and they'rethere for a couple hours.
Pay your caregivers Of courseyou don't want them to come in
for free, but letting them knowthat you're going to be paying
them.
Partner with the organizationslike Alzheimer's Association,
(28:05):
the Teepa Snow National Councilof Certified Dementia
Practitioners.
Also Partner with all theseagencies.
And if anybody has anyquestions, feel free to put them
in the chat.
And if anybody has anyquestions, feel free to put them
in the chat.
Yeah, partner with cna schools,community college senior centers
.
You're going to recruitcaregivers interested in special
training.
(28:25):
There may be caregivers thatare going for their cna
community colleges, maybenursing degrees.
Sponsor their certification inexchange for maybe six to 12
months employment commitment.
Market your company's focus oncompassionate dementia care and
your job ads.
Include client stories,testimonials a day in the life,
(28:46):
social posts showing how yourcaregiver makes a difference.
And social media recruitingworks too.
Running targeted ad campaigns,ads that say want to be a hero
for somebody living with memoryloss, we'll train you.
Apply today Using reels ofshowing your caregiver joy.
Team support, dementia-relatedtraining.
So again, putting that all inyour socials.
(29:09):
Advertising how you helpclients with dementia and offer
a tiered wage scale, for ifyou're, maybe you will pay a
caregiver one or three dollarsmore an hour if they're
certified in dementia care, ifthey're more experienced,
provide bonus incentives forcompleting refreshers or
(29:30):
continuing education.
Create a monthly spotlight foryour dementia champions.
Offer team badges, pins, shirtrecognition, advancing their
roles and again, allowing yourtop caregivers to mentor and
co-lead community trainings.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
I think that works great, Offering the $1 to $3
more an hour.
I think charging a little bitmore for the dementia,
Alzheimer's patient client isalso doable, Because you are
putting more into the caregiversand paying them more.
You certainly can charge alittle bit more for a client
with dementia or Alzheimer's aswell.
(30:08):
So that's something to keep inmind so that your margins stay.
You're not taking away yourmargins.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
paying the caregivers a little bit more, you can also
charge a little bit more forthese clients for sure, yeah,
maybe you're charging like $5more an hour and then you can
give your caregiver $2 or $3,but definitely because some of
them are hard to handle.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
They are and those caregivers get tired.
I also, when we would havesomebody with Alzheimer's, we
would have more caregivers.
I know that we need consistencyand that's really important.
But if it was a 12 hour,instead of doing two or three,
we might have an extra one thatwe would put in there as well,
just because it's hard for them.
If it's a really difficultclient that if they get they're
(30:47):
not combative, but they couldthey push right up to being
combative.
You say the wrong thing andthey just lose it.
Having a couple of morecaregivers in in the rotation
but they're with you a while thepatient, the client, they start
to recognize them.
You want consistency, butsometimes just one more
caregiver in the mix helps alittle bit with burnout too.
(31:08):
That's something to think of.
Give someone a little bit of abreak.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Okay.
And then again, ongoing supportand supervision weekly
check-ins.
I think it's really importantto making sure you check in with
these clients, especially yourdementia clients.
A lot of them are their 24-7clients, popping in, checking in
to see how things are going,asking the caregivers is there
anything we can do to help you?
What support do you need?
Let them know that you'resupporting them.
I think that's really important.
(31:32):
If they don't have somebodythat they don't know, that you
know what they're working hard.
But I think by sending somebodyto one of your team members
over to check in and see howthings are going, and offering
if you can support them in anyway, block shifts, flexible
scheduling, just like John said,to reduce burnout, maybe adding
another caregiver in the mix.
Say, you have the 12-hourshifts, it's a long time.
(31:53):
Maybe you do three eight-hourshifts just to give them a
little bit of a break.
Again, creating a team leader,team dementia leader, and these
are some again externalpartnerships to explore.
Okay, all right.
So now this is the fun part.
Lisa and I had fun doing this.
So, instead of offeringcompanionship, you want to show
(32:16):
your families how you're behindtheir care.
We found some cool itemsavailable for your caregivers to
use while caring for yourdementia clients.
Now, I know when I worked inhome care, in our office we had
this really big like toy box andshelves of all these different
items that our caregivers couldstop in the office and come and
pick up puzzles or coloringbooks or fidget tools.
(32:40):
But we had supplies for themand we also had our client care
coordinator who do visits to ourcaregivers.
Would bring a little bag of funwith her to the client.
Having some of these thingsavailable to help your
caregivers with the clients itreally does help.
There's photo cue cards, memoryboxes, music, photo cue cards,
(33:04):
memory boxes, music puzzles,fidget tools, coloring books,
whiteboards.
I know we had a lot of clientsthey had that whiteboard and
they had that calendar and theyknew that Susie and Johnny and
Sally what day they were coming.
That's important to them.
Having a visual large piecepuzzles, coloring books, music
therapy again, playlists using aSpotify or YouTube playlist to
help them calm down, and I'mgoing to have Lisa go over all
(33:25):
of these fun things.
We're going to send you theselinks, but we found some really
cool things on Amazon, and alsothe Alzheimer's store has some
really fun things.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah, so if you dive in and start looking, you'll
find a whole bunch of things andthere's so much.
And you mentioned earlier goingto the Goodwill.
I think that's such a greatalternative too, because a lot
of this stuff can get reallyexpensive.
But we did find some lessexpensive options.
But, like the fidget stuff isreally cool.
There's like fidget boxes andyou name it.
(33:56):
So just looking at thedifferent categories here dining
, right, so having these littleplacemats and I have a couple of
visuals for you guys on acouple of slides over, but I'm
giving you like the categoryhelpful products and where to
buy them.
These aren't the only places,obviously, just to give you like
a one-stop shop so you can lookfor these things.
But dining making a meal lookappetizing by just making sure
(34:21):
that the plating looks nice,it's as simple as that a bright
red plate versus a white plateand a white egg and white rice,
or it makes it look veryappealing to them.
And so, looking at differentthings like that, for sundowning
, there's this cool thing.
I would not have even known itexisted.
It's a light therapy box.
(34:41):
It's a little I don't rememberif it was that expensive, but
it's really just like a lightthat looks like it's morning
time, that you can sit and sitat your table and you don't feel
so disoriented towards theevening.
And lots of other things toohere as you can see memory games
, there's the mind care store,senior style always home
(35:02):
connected plus sensory directsun box, alzheimer's store, so
all of these different placesKeeping busy.
There's fidget blankets, whichI thought were really cool,
sensory puzzles, weighted snakesI thought I said something else
.
I thought I said weightedblankets, but I don't know.
Weighted snakes, routines.
So clocks there's like thesecool clocks that they cannot
(35:24):
change the time or anything likethat, and there's not much to
it.
It's like just this box and itlooks really cool.
I really liked it a lot.
There's a clock and a radiothat they just look so cool.
They're very simple but ithelps with.
You can play music.
It helps with their routine,all of those different things.
Music therapy which youmentioned earlier.
(35:45):
Youtube just play it.
You go find a channel and playYouTube.
You can also get an MP3 player.
Or check out this Mind Carestore.
Doll therapy I've seen this alot.
There's some real looking,realistic baby dolls.
There's a sale on some.
I think it's at ParadiseGalleries here that I listed.
These are so great People usethem for, even for PTSD.
(36:08):
They cuddle them, they you knowthey're remembering a different
time and so I think that thoseare.
It's just the sweetest Stuffedanimal therapy robotic cats and
dogs that can.
They can move their arms,things like that.
Or there's look at Tessashowing hers and you just pet
them and love them and theyreally love this it's.
It really just helps keep themcalm and it just brings them
(36:31):
into that other, another placethat they're, they were used to.
So all of these little where tobuys you can look this up and
see where those things are.
So I would really suggest thatyou keep this list for families
too, especially so that they putyour logo on it.
Print it out.
I probably should have made itprettier, but I think this works
for what it is and just givethat to families and say this
(36:53):
might be something that wouldwork really well.
Okay, tess said from their localoffice of aging, the aging
agency, we can get theanimatronic dog or cat for our
clients at no cost.
That's really cool.
Look that up too.
What is it the independentagency on aging in your local
area?
Look for those, because youmight have the same sort of
(37:16):
program.
Okay, this is page two.
Yeah, okay, so same kind ofsetup here the category helpful
products and where to buy them.
So they have reminiscence kits.
That's so cool.
You can come up with a wholebunch of stuff there role play
tools like aprons and a phone,and maybe give a typewriter or
(37:36):
something like that gettingdressed, so that can be
sometimes a challenge, atypewriter, something like that
getting dressed, so that can besometimes a challenge.
And so there are so many.
I actually was surprised at howmany websites there were to
find adaptive clothing for folksthat struggling with cloutings
or zippers or things like that.
Toileting, raised toilet seatsthis is like stuff that we
(37:56):
already know about, but folkswith dementia need these too.
Showering same type ofsituation.
But think about getting out andabout like wearable GPS.
There's some that you can putin the shoe, there's some that
you can just add to anundershirt and there's special
undershirts that can just putthis little GPS tracker Back in
(38:18):
the day we used to just write onthe inside of the shirt and
different things like that,which still work, but with GPS
technology you can really keeptrack of folks.
Faucet safety I wouldn't haveeven thought of that, except for
with my grandmother, forexample.
We have to make it so shecouldn't cook.
Get rid of the gas line and howthey did it and what they did.
Get rid of the knobs on thestove Little things like that.
(38:42):
And then faucet safety, sosomeone doesn't burn themselves.
They actually have anti-scalddevices.
I didn't even know, but theseare so important to keeping
seniors safe at home, especiallyif they have dementia.
No cook solutions, obviously,we know these.
There's some frozen mealdeliveries.
There's some fresh, not frozen,options as well, and then
nutrition shakes, anything thatdoesn't involve cooking.
(39:04):
And then rummaging kits.
I used to call it nesting, butmy grandmother used to rummage
from one box to the next box andjust create these piles of
things, and she was sointerested in it.
She loved to do this all thetime and she would sometimes
share what she was looking atwith us and we would engage in
(39:27):
that.
But photos, keys, everythingimaginable necklaces, beads, you
name it were in these boxes.
There was really no rhyme orreason.
It was just looking at things,touching them, feeling them,
putting them back into a newpile, and it was just amazing to
watch her do that because,again, we didn't really
understand it at the time, butshe would.
(39:49):
Just, it was something that sheloved to do, looking at her
things.
Maybe she was rememberingthings, but it was very
comforting for her.
So all of these things again,you can look at the where to buy
those two pages.
I would definitely print outand look at them first and make
(40:09):
sure you agree with all theselinks and print them out for
your clients and their familymembers.
Okay, here's our fun things.
Two visuals so I really lovethe fidget blanket.
I would probably play with thatall the time actually, because
I can't sit still.
So that's a really cool thing.
It has different buttons andI'm sorry buttons and latches
and pens and I don't know awhole bunch of things there.
Dementia coloring book I thinkthese are really easy.
(40:32):
They're big, there's not a lotof detail, so it's just a big
color book.
Memory games those are reallyfun too.
And paint with water.
I think that's cool.
You can use that over and overagain.
You just use your paintbrushwith water.
It colors the, for example, theduck, exactly as it looks now,
and then I guess when it driesit goes away.
So I think that's really cool.
(40:52):
You can use that again andagain.
There's Amazon links there.
And then the next page.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
And we had.
Just, I want to add, we had asenior community that was an
independent living Ladies wouldcollect old anything buttons,
zippers, fabric and they wouldmake fidget, little fidget books
and they would give them.
They'd give me a call and say,hey, we've got some more for you
to pick up and we would deliverthem to our clients.
They, they, they love doingthat kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, here's the plating Very cool, oh yeah, the
plating.
This placemat it's a non-slipplacemat and it's just a
reminder as to especially, Iguess, the era that we're
dealing with.
Right, they did set the tableall the time.
I don't know if you do it asmuch now, but they did set the
table and so this is a greatreminder.
Probably will bring them backto a ton of like family meal
(41:42):
memories, but so just like helpwith that.
And then these bright colorsthese really what I was looking
for a hundred percent, because Idid see some other ones, but
these are really cool.
They're bright, they make yourmeal just, I don't know, it
helps, it stand out, it looksappealing.
So if you're ever havingtrouble with someone eating, and
I feel if you do it in verysmall portions and don't mix the
(42:05):
portions, don't mix the foodslike berries great, and then you
can go to something else yogurtgreat, but don't overwhelm the
senses, right.
I think that's the key takeawayfor these.
But these are really cool,they're not too expensive and
it'll make a difference.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
This is my favorite the kitties and the babies.
The babies and the kitties.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Yes, these are just super cute.
Again, it just really helpswith comfort and just love and
feeling, just needed maybe.
So these are really superhelpful.
I used to see these in homesall the time, especially the
cats.
I feel like I saw the cats themost, but I would see people
petting them and before I reallyknew what it was, I was like,
(42:51):
hmm, but now that I understand,now that I understand that's
what's going on, it's a realcomfort to them and I get it.
And this one, this Perfect Pets, I think it breathes.
That's why the little you see,the little detail there, it
breathes and I wonder if itpurrs, because if it does, I
might buy one and there's a lotof different price ranges.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
I think this one was at the all-time restore but you
can find them like $100 to $40.
And maybe you have a few foryour office and just share them.
We're not saying you buy themfor all your clients, but there
were some that we found thatwere quite reasonable and I
think they do love it.
It comforts them.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Yeah, you could have a little like checkout system.
Thanks for taking what where Idon't know how people would feel
about that is maybe cleanlinessand things like that, but we
could maybe like dry clean them,I don't know, and things like
that.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
But we could maybe like dry clean them I don't know
, we'd have to look at that, seehow you keep them clean.
Or just have them go and visit,do friendly visits like a real
yeah, exactly, all right, sogreat.
We're going to send you all thelinks, the PDFs, and you're
going to have all the links.
So we want walk to endAlzheimer's.
Many of you may be involved inthe walk.
I think it's a great way tojoin as a team.
You can get company t-shirts,you can invite family members of
(44:04):
your clients.
You can have a big team.
You can promote it on yoursocials, your Facebook, your
LinkedIn, your company website.
I added the link here.
I think there's different times.
I think it's in October here inNew York, I don't know, but
you're going to have to look tosee where your walk is every
year.
But it's really fun.
You invite your caregivers andcaregiver families.
(44:26):
It's a great way for you topromote that you help people
with dementia.
So we thought it was importantto add this.
If you're not doing it, pleasedo.
I see Tess shaking her head.
I think I've seen you postingthat you're doing a test and
you've got a big team goingahead and you're raising money
for a really good cause.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Okay, we've got the link here that we'll share Some
people do this every year andthey really market the heck out
of it to get people to jointheir team and help donate and
things like that.
I think there's even like a.
There's like a donation levelthat you're striving for.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Very cool.
Okay, all right.
So thank you everybody.
We want to remind you we haveour ASN 90 day mastery program.
It's a 12 week sales trainingclass.
I do the teaching for that.
We have August 14th and August20th.
We still have some spots open,so if anybody is interested,
please let us know.
(45:17):
We would love to have you joinus.
And before we go into theleave-behinds, as I said,
remember in the chat box we aregoing to pick somebody that is
in attendance today to theMastery Circle to win September.
Thanks everybody for joining ustoday.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
You'll get the replay soon.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
We will announce the winner.
Make sure in the chat box ifyou want to be included in the
fun.
Leave behind, say yes and wewill put your name in the chat
One more time.
Yep, all right, everybody.
Have a great week.
Thanks for coming.
We'll see you All right, takecare, you guys.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
See you next time.
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