July 24, 2025 • 46 mins
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Episode Summary:
What if the key to better dementia care isn’t more complexity—but more simplicity?
In this powerful and deeply personal episode, Erin sits down with Allyson Schrier, founder of Zinnia TV, to discuss how personal experience, curiosity, and innovation led to a tool that's transforming dementia education. From caregiving for her husband with frontotemporal dementia to developing a video platform that helps caregivers model daily activities and reduce agitation—Allyson brings both heart and strategy.
This episode explores:
- How trauma and curiosity can birth impactful solutions
- Why traditional staff training misses the mark—and how to fix it
- How modeling and pre-framing transform caregiving outcomes
- Cultural awareness and the need to individualize training
- Zinnia TV’s power to soothe, connect, and empower
Whether you’re a senior living leader, family caregiver, or simply someone who believes in person-centered care—this episode will shift how you think about training, communication, and compassion.
🎥 Learn more about Zinnia TV: zinniatv.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin (00:00):
What if the key to better Dementia care isn't more
complexity?
But it's actually moresimplicity.
In this episode, I sit down withAllison Schreyer, founder of Zia
tv, to explore how modeling andpre-framing and bite-size
learning can transform how wetrain staff, support our
(00:21):
residents, and lead with empathyinside our senior living
communities.
If you have ever said, theyshould already know how to do
this.
You get frustrated about that.
This episode hopefully will be awake up call for you because
great care doesn't start whenyou start checking off the boxes
(00:43):
in your training, your corporatetraining, leadership checklist.
It starts with very clear, verysimple connection to your team.
And I'm so happy to welcomeAllison here today, founder of
Zia tv, who's going to talkabout all of that and more.
(01:05):
Welcome Allison.
Thank you, Erin.
It's great to be here.
Yes, I, was able to hear.
A lot about your story throughsome friends of mine, and I
wanted to have you here so yourstory could be told to my
listeners as well and reach thepeople inside of a community
because I think Zia TV has a lotto offer in very unique and
(01:28):
innovative ways.
So tell us about you, how yougot here.
What you're doing is solve somereally big, complex problems.
Allyson (01:41):
Well, thank you for that invitation.
So, so many people who work inthe, dementia sphere, my
background starts with that partof the story, which is that my
husband was diagnosed withfrontotemporal dementia when he
was 47.
Right around the same time mystepdad was diagnosed with
vascular dementia and mystepmother had.
(02:04):
Undiagnosed, but was almostcertainly Alzheimer's disease.
So I was.
Suddenly, as is always the case,thrust into the role of trying
to figure out how do you supportthe person who's living with me,
who has dementia, while alsosupporting my parents and their
partners who are living withdementia.
So it required that I learn alot pretty quickly, but I think
(02:27):
that's the case with everybody.
I happen to be a, deeplyinquisitive person.
So I really wanted to understandwhy, what's going on in my
husband's brain?
Why is he responding to theworld in the way that he is?
And so that led to me taking abunch of classes and watching
videos, reading books.
(02:49):
And gaining some understanding.
It also, was the case that I didmany things wrong while
supporting my husband, and thatcertainly taught me how to do
things correctly.
So, deep curiosity, I think isthe greatest thing that a
caregiver can be blessed with.
And when I, really latched on tothe idea that I had to get a job
(03:13):
right?
I had to get work because myhusband had been a software
engineer.
I was very comfortable being astay at home mom.
How lucky was I that I was withour, our kids were 12 and 15
when he was diagnosed, but howlucky was I that I had this life
where I.
Doing writing and being thestay-at-home mom and, driving
people places and suddenly wow.
(03:35):
Life took a big, sharp turn andI wasn't ready for it.
So, I, for a couple of years wewere blessed to have enough
money in savings that I was ableto make our family run off of
that.
But then, especially once myhusband moved into long-term
care.
I had to find a job and thequestion was, what would I do?
My background is in technologyand one of the things that I did
(03:56):
back then is that I, I taught, Ibecame an expert in certain
systems that other people wantedto know about and I loved
teaching, but I thought, I coulddo that again, except that I'm
not an expert in anything.
And then I.
But what?
I know a lot about caregivingand I bet I could get to a point
where I would have something tooffer other caregivers.
(04:18):
So, Erin, that led to me gettingcertifications.
I did the whole TPA snow route,and gained certifications there.
I started teaching for free inlibraries and churches and
wherever I could go.
To just spread the word todementia family caregivers.
I had a, a class that Ideveloped that was called How to
(04:39):
Be Friends with People LivingWith Dementia because I
recognized that a lot of peopleshied away from our family
simply because they didn't knowhow to be with Evan.
They didn't know how tocommunicate with him.
They were afraid.
What happens if he gets violent?
There's so much misunderstandingabout what dementia is and what
dementia is not, and how to bewith people Eventually, I.
(05:02):
Got certified to teach classesin long-term care here in
Washington State.
And so for four years I was inlong-term care communities where
my students were the people whowere the boots on the ground
caregivers.
I had activity folks, I had, Ihad executive directors in my
classes and I taught them themandated.
(05:26):
Full day dementia and full daymental health classes that are
required if you want to work inlong-term care in Washington
State.
And from there, I moved into theUniversity of Washington, where
I worked for three years,helping to launch and then
manage a program that was.
Education again, but this timethe students were primary care
(05:47):
providers who were trying tolearn how to better detect,
diagnose, and support theirpatients who are living with
dementia and then there's awhole other story, which is how
Zinnia TV came to be, but thatis the basis of what allowed me
to feel comfortable supporting.
People, whether they are familymembers, professional
(06:08):
caregivers, or even healthcareproviders in their questions
about how to best serve peoplewho are living with dementia.
Erin (06:16):
That's a true definition of what an overnight success
looks like, right?
You start free, you startworking in the churches and the
libraries.
You start educating, you startgetting the reps in.
And everybody's definition ofsuccess is different.
that's important to establishhere.
But look where we start.
We start at the bottom.
(06:38):
And we get the reps in and weknow that there's something more
than the pain that I'm in.
Look where we are now.
I mean, it's a beautiful storyon how life.
Can use your deepest, darkesttrauma, the deepest, darkest
wounds and turn it intosomething that is triumphant if
(07:04):
you allow it to be that way.
Right?
If you own the parts of thestory, like you said, that
people don't know how to relate,they don't know how to act, and
therefore they were distant.
And you use that pain to helpeducate instead of sit in the
pain.
And look where that took you.
(07:25):
Yeah, that's huge.
Thank you for thatacknowledgement.
Yeah.
That's so important.
Just with my own story, likehearing that as a parent of
somebody who's unique and thenknowing that story with your
husband and seeing that from myexperience inside of a
community, there's somethingreally important about
(07:46):
education, which is the topicthat we have today, because
people don't engage because theyfeel uncomfortable.
Well, what happens?
How do you go from uncomfortableto comfortable?
It's education, it's practice,it's real life experience, you
know?
Allyson (08:06):
It absolutely is.
And, just yesterday, Ifacilitate support groups for
family members who aresupporting loved ones with
dementia.
And just yesterday, that was thetopic that we were taught.
The topic was, how do I knowwhen it's time for my loved one
to go to long-term care?
And so one of the questions was,well, what about if the person
(08:28):
is starting to get agitated andanxious all the time?
Is that the time to send them tolong-term care?
And I said, no, that's the timeto think about what you might be
doing wrong.
That is, Right.
Because somebody's gotta change.
And it can't be the person whohas dementia.
It has to be the person who hasthe big, fat, healthy brain who
(08:51):
is capable of change.
And so if a person is routinelygetting agitated and anxious and
upset, the first step is to getcurious and figure out what are
the triggers and how do Irespond to those triggers in a
way that will not make thingsworse, but will instead soothe
and reduce agitation.
(09:11):
So that gets back to your point.
Education.
If you understand what's goingon physically in the brain of a
person who's living withdementia and how that translates
into the way that one respondsto the world, my gosh, that's a
game changer.
Erin (09:28):
It's a huge game changer.
It's huge.
And it's being intentional, Ithink, for too many people.
We're not intentional.
And being intentional aboutknowing what you need to know,
knowing what you don't know thatyou need to know, and then
applying that.
That can change your life.
In every facet.
So I think it's a really greatstory that you used your pain,
(09:51):
right?
Your family's paying to fuel, amission to create.
Something that helps people.
I know that you must have seenthe gaps through your own
personal and professionaljourney.
You must have seen gaps intraining that caused you to
understand, Hey, I can helpsolve this problem and somehow
(10:13):
combine technology and educationtogether in a unique way.
And that led to the creation ofZia tv.
So what were those gaps?
And then how do you, how do youuse your product as Z-E-S-T-V to
fill those gaps?
(10:34):
'Cause it's interesting, right?
Allyson (10:36):
Well talk from a long-term care perspective,
right?
What I found working with mystudents who had been through
CNA training, right?
They had the physical skills.
So they understood how you bathea person.
They understood the basics abouthow to dress a person.
(10:58):
They understood the basics abouthow to help a person eat a meal,
but what they seemed to reallylack was a sense of what could
go south and how to correctlyrespond to that.
And also, I will admit that,while the training.
That was mandated by WashingtonState.
(11:21):
I thought, great.
Their curriculum was thorough.
It was clear they had greatexamples.
I liked following theircurriculum, but I really
deviated a lot because I felt itwas imperative.
If you're gonna be supportingpeople who are living with
dementia, that you alsounderstand some of the things
that Tiva snow.
(11:41):
Pushes, right?
Like hand underhand, feedinginstead of just poking a spoon
in someone's mouth and how touse hand underhand to help
people dress.
And the positive physicalapproach.
How do you, how do you approachsomebody in a way that doesn't
kind of put them off or scarethem or agitate them?
And so I think that some of thegaps that I saw is that the
training that people receivedseemed to be training that was.
(12:05):
Old fashioned, they werelearning things that were part
of a curriculum that wasprobably written 20 years ago,
and it didn't seem like thecurriculum was where wherever
they were getting theirtraining, it lacked the
personhood that I think is soimportant when one is working in
a caregiving, caregivingsituation.
(12:26):
The other gaps that I saw Erin,were that the people who were my
students.
Were overworked, right?
They, they had so many thingsthat they needed to do in a very
short period of time, and theremay be, in some cases, one.
Caregiver to 14 residents.
(12:47):
So how does one caregiver with14 residents also establish a
sense of companionship andconnection with the residents?
Because it all starts withconnection, right?
It has to be a person to person.
Connection there needs to be theperson to person connection,
where we are more than just aperson who's coming in to scrub
(13:09):
something, right?
We're coming into work in a veryintimate way with another human
being.
How do we have them trust us?
How do we have them know us?
How do we have them not feellike we are rushing through to
get this done so that we cantake it off of our agenda?
And move on to the next person.
And that's hard when a personhas too many people that they're
caring for.
(13:30):
So part of the gap has to dowith education.
Part of the gap has to do withjust the realities that,
especially right now, peopleare, there's not enough.
Staff right there, there's ahuge shortage.
And so people are taking on morethan they should.
And so therefore it is more thanever important to have tools to
(13:53):
lean into technology as amechanism to help create
connection, to help reduceagitation, to help educate
caregivers.
And that's where Zia comes in.
Erin (14:08):
Leadership inside senior living is layered.
It's very complex, it's veryrushed.
Caregivers get a lot ofattention, because they deserve
it on how overworked they areand leaders.
Struggle with the same thing.
I think that leaders strugglewith the connection piece and
(14:29):
knowing how to connect withcaregivers to get the most outta
them, to educate them in a veryconnected and specific way for
them.
What have you seen in yourcareer that leaders often
overlook when it comes to staffeducation?
And resident, engagement.
Allyson (14:49):
Yeah.
So one of the big issues that Ihave seen is lack of cultural
awareness.
Where leaders assume thateverybody learns the same way.
Yes, I was one of those.
Yes.
So lack of an understanding oflearning styles and a respect
for different learning stylesand lack of cultural awareness
(15:10):
where a person who is here fromanother country.
Who does not think or do thingsthe same way as the person who
is training them, and sotherefore, the person who is the
caregiver from another cultureis made to feel disrespected, is
made to feel.
Less than and is not necessarilypicking up how they're supposed
(15:36):
to be performing this duty, andit could be because of language
issues as well as culturalissues.
So I think that that is, that isa huge gap that I see.
I have a dear friend who managesthe memory care unit at a
community here in the Seattlearea.
And she was complaining bitterlyabout just some of the staff and
(15:59):
some of the male staffespecially who were from other
countries who really didn'trespect her and who were pushing
back against her.
We had a conversation about thefact, well, culturally it's not.
Don't like, don't take itpersonally.
Right.
But you have to come up with asolution because culturally, the
way that they have spent theirentire lives is in a society
(16:20):
where women are not wellrespected.
So how do you push?
How do you work with that?
And the first part is to justrecognize it.
Recognize that it's an issue,and then from there, open up
conversation in a meaningful wayto try to figure out how do you
and I.
Staff member work together tomake sure that we are meeting
(16:41):
our goals, that we are mutuallymeeting our goals.
And so I think that that issomething that's also overlooked
is what does the caregiver want?
What do they expect?
What do they need for managementto allow them to be successful?
And so creating a communicationflow that invites people to be
able to say.
(17:02):
This isn't working for me isreally important.
Instead of just handing somebodya list of rules and saying, this
is the way that you're going todo things in this community.
Erin (17:12):
Yeah.
You know, we make it sound sosimple.
Awareness and curiosity are likethe two basic things you need in
order to move in this world.
It's really hard to be thatsimple because everybody is so
busy.
But if you take a beat and likeyou said, be aware, don't just
(17:36):
ignore this issue'cause it's notgoing away.
You have to be aware and thenyou have to be curious.
Not judgmental.
Not defensive, and notisolating.
But curious and ask thequestions.
That's such good word.
The 15 Commitments of ConsciousLeadership.
Allyson (17:59):
What it's all about is this idea of awareness of what
do the people who, report to meneed.
Importance of as in anyrelationship, right?
So often what happens I, in myown personal relationship,
right?
What I find is that sometimeswhen I'm expressing a concern,
(18:21):
the person who I am expressingit to immediately gets their
back and gets defensive becausethey feel like they're being
attacked.
And so to recognize theimportance of instead of getting
defensive, get curious.
Always, instead of gettingdefensive, get curious.
Why is the person saying thislistening?
(18:42):
One of the things that I taughtin my classes to caregivers was
the importance of activelistening.
How do I really take in whatsomebody is saying and hear it
without filtering it through thefilter of what I want to hear?
Right.
I need to hear what somebody isactually saying.
(19:03):
And as you just said sobeautifully, stay out of
judgment.
I cannot judge a person for whatthey say.
And the other thing that is soimportant to recognize is that I
cannot push back on youremotional response.
And this is with everybody whowe're dealing with, but I cannot
invalidate your emotionalresponse.
So if somebody says, I'm really.
(19:24):
Scared about the way that thingsare happening with this resident
who I'm supporting.
I could never, it would never beappropriate for me to say,
you're not scared or, fear isn'tan appropriate response here.
She's scared.
So you need to get curious aboutwhy is she, and what does she
need?
In order to not feel that way.
(19:45):
Yeah.
Sorry.
I'm not even sure if this iswhere we intended to go with the
conversation, but it
Erin (19:49):
No, it's so good though.
It's so good.
It really is so good and itreally does lead me into, like
the point of today's episode tome is about modeling and
pre-framing, which are thefundamentals when we are talking
(20:10):
about.
Educating caregivers and caringfor loved ones.
Pre-framing is something I useall the time as a parent with my
children.
You know, obviously one has someunique needs, and the other one
is a typical child andpre-framing works.
And this is something that whenI was looking into Zia TV and
(20:31):
talking to you about it, that'swhat these videos do, right?
They pre-frame and they model.
The activity of daily living orthe next phase that we're moving
into that is a nonverbalcommunication, right?
And so if we can combine thecaregiving verbal instructions
(20:54):
with a video of nonverbalcommunication with a modeling
and pre-framing way, soundscomplicated to some, but
actually is.
Seamless in approach.
So share this powerful idea inmore detailed way.
Allyson (21:12):
Absolutely.
So first, let me just definewhat Zia is.
Yes.
So Zia tv and it's Zia theflowers, Z-I-N-N-I-A.
Which came about because I am a,passionate gardener and one of
my favorite flowers is Zia's.
And one of the reasons I lovethem is because they put up with
a lot, right?
So even if conditions aresuboptimal, they still do really
(21:34):
well.
And so it seemed an appropriatename for what we were
developing.
Zenia is an app that delivers,it's a streaming service.
So if you think about Netflix orHulu or any of those, Amazon
Prime, right?
deliveries, mechanisms forvideos.
However, the videos that westream are custom curated by us
(21:57):
to be digestible by and engagingfor people living with dementia.
And this came from my experienceas a family caregiver when I was
looking for a tool to help me.
Connect with and engage with myhusband who was nonverbal.
I had found that if I show himimages of things, so our, our
(22:19):
conversations tend to betransactional when we're talking
with a person who's nonverbal,you just sort of get into this
yucky yak mode about, I did goshopping today.
You wouldn't believe the priceof whatever.
Which is of no interest to theperson with dementia, but it's
what's in my mind.
And so that's what I talk about.
Instead, what I figured out is,oh, but if I bring in a magazine
and we look at pictures, there'ssomething for you to look at,
(22:40):
something for you to focus on,and it can inspire a
conversation that is meaningful.
So if I brought in a skimagazine and he loves skiing, we
could talk about skiing, wecould talk about specific ski
trips that we have done.
We could talk about equipment,we could talk about types of
snow, whatever it might be.
I discovered that, well, I couldalso do that with my phone.
(23:02):
I've got lots of pictures on myphone and I discovered that I
could make little videos on myphone using Apple's memories
product so we could watch alittle video that is comprised
of all of the images of dogs saythat are on my phone.
I wanted to, however, havecontent that wasn't on my phone
because I wanted to do skivideos and I wanted to do.
(23:23):
Rafting videos.
And so in a phone conversationwith somebody who was at Apple,
I got connected to the personwho created the little thing
that I was using on my phone tomake videos.
I asked him, how do I get morecontent?
And he was oh my God, wait,you're you making videos to
reach out to people withdementia?
And I said, yes.
And he said, oh my gosh, wenever thought about that as a
(23:44):
possible use case.
He had recently left Apple.
He became my business partner,and we started Zia together.
That was back in 2018.
So now moving forward, here weare at 2025, right?
Our app didn't come out until2022.
Prior to that, we were justiterating, iterating, iterating,
building content, and we werevery lucky early on to be able
(24:06):
to get our videos into aresearch project at the
University of British Columbiain conjunction with Vancouver
General Hospital That.
Was invaluable because we hadstudents going into long-term
care communities, showing themour videos, and we were
constantly getting feedbackabout what's working, what's not
working.
(24:26):
Meanwhile, we were going intocare communities and showing
videos and figuring out what todo.
So where we are now is thatZenia is about 30 different
channels I will call them, whichare basically categories.
So it could be a category oftravel videos or of animal
videos, or of hobbies or offaith-based videos.
(24:47):
There are singalongs, there arequizzes.
What we know is that people withdementia have a really hard time
tracking a plot.
Telling fact from fiction,paying attention to different
characters.
Erin (25:00):
Mm-hmm.
Allyson (25:00):
Processing audio and video that is happening at the
same time.
I will digress for just a momentand share that about, uh, in
May, I was at a conference, theMichigan Assisted Living
Association conference, where Iled a panel that was called Low
Tech and No Tech Solutions forpeople living with Dementia.
The panelists all had dementia.
(25:23):
Now, obviously they're prettyhigh functioning people if they
were able to get to a conferencein Michigan, right?
To be on this panel.
I asked them, what do you guyslike to watch on TV?
And all?
But one of them said, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh.
I don't watch TV anymore.
Why don't you watch tv?
I just, can't pay attention.
I mean, I can't follow what the,who did.
I just see that character.
(25:43):
Is she the one who did whatever?
I can't follow the plot.
I'm constantly asking the personI'm sitting with to tell me what
just happened.
And it's like I'm trying totrack the audio and the video at
the same time.
It's too much.
I get so frustrated and anxious.
That I'd rather just not watchtv.
So now if you think about all ofthe care communities, which was
the case where my husband lived,he was in five different
(26:05):
communities, and in three ofthem the TV was on all the time.
And so you think about somebodylike him who's in a wheelchair,
parked in front of a tv, and youthink about this experience of
people who are still very earlyin their progression, cannot
follow regular tv, and yet weput people in front of a TV and
so watching regular programming,and so when I would show up and
(26:27):
find him pounding his chest andscreaming, or I would find him
looking around the room lost,like, how do I get out of here
or find him sleeping?
It makes complete sense thatthose were his reactions because
he was being exposed tosomething that was troubling on
a daily basis.
So the goal in creating Ziavideos is to have something that
(26:48):
is slow paced, that is,valuable, that's meaningful.
And a lot of our work is basedon a paper that I discovered
early on that was calledtelevision viewing.
And people with Dementia Livingand Long-term Care, that was the
name of the paper.
And Dr.
Kate Di Mudros and her studentswent to long-term care
communities.
They showed people I love Lucy.
(27:10):
Jerry Springer, Bob Rosspainting pictures, and what they
discovered is that most of thosewere not meaningful at all, that
people had a really hard timepaying attention to them because
of these deficits that we'vedescribed.
But the one video that seemed toperhaps be useful was one called
Venice, which was basically likescreensavers images.
(27:31):
Or slow moving videos withmusic, which is what Zia is with
lots and lots of differenttopics.
So if I know, I, we have I somany stories that people share
with us about, we, my mom, wethought my mom was nonverbal and
then we showed her the Ziasewing video.
She's crazy about sewing.
And when she heard the sound offabrics being snipped, her eyes
(27:52):
opened up.
She leaned in, she watched thewhole video about sewing.
And by the whole video, I meanlike.
We're talking about seven to 12minutes.
Right.
It's not like these are fulllength films.
Mm-hmm.
And they, and he said, but atthe end of that, she started
talking.
She started telling us aboutsewing because we found the
unlock.
How do we connect with thisperson?
Which is why Zia can be sohelpful in long-term care.
(28:15):
If we sit and we watch a videowith someone, we can inspire
connection and conversation injust a couple of minutes.
Because we have tapped intosomething that is meaningful to
them.
So the videos are also hugelyhelpful to reduce agitation if
somebody is starting to getupset, that we can show them a
video, a visual distraction,something that pulls them in,
(28:38):
that helps lighten the mood.
And this was a huge part of theresearch.
Both at UBC and at a number ofother, places where we have
since done research, but you hadtalked about the modeling piece
and so I just wanna touch onthat.
We have a category of videosthat are called our Activity of
Daily Living videos.
And so there's a video called,let's Take Our Medication, let's
(28:59):
drink water, let's, use thetoilet.
Let's get dressed, let's getwashed up and let's brush our
teeth.
These are short videos.
That are not instructional.
It's not somebody saying,approach the toilet, pull down
your pants.
Instead, what it is, is simply avideo that shows people doing
the thing that we are about todo and.
(29:24):
Being successful, enjoying it.
So in the, let's drink water,video.
It is simply people clinkingtheir glasses, drinking water,
dogs drinking water, kitty catsdrinking water, babies drinking
water, people sitting across thetable from each other, drinking
water at a park, drinking water,and it's simply getting across
(29:44):
the idea that drinking water isa thing.
And it's something that we'reabout to do, so that by the time
I then offer you a drink ofwater, it's fully present in
your mind that drinking water isthe activity that's about to
happen.
And so in long-term carecommunities, they will, for
instance, put on the breakfastvideo before they serve
breakfast so that people seeothers picking up a fork, eating
(30:07):
breakfast, they get the thingthat we're doing is eating.
There are people who will usethe Good morning video, which
starts with a sun rising, and itstarts with a rooster crowing,
right?
These iconic images that tell usthe time of day is morning and
we're about to get up, and thenit goes in and it shows people
showering and it shows peoplethen eating their breakfast.
(30:29):
It shows people getting dressedso that we just show the flow of
what a morning is like.
Or we could then watch theeating breakfast video.
We have good night videos thatshow the reverse, right?
The sun is setting, the moon iscoming up in the sky, people are
putting on their pajamas,they're yawning.
It is time for us to go to bed,and we hear from people that if
(30:49):
they watch the same videos, thea DL videos on a regular basis,
that in general it reducesagitation around specific types
of activities.
Erin (31:01):
We always knew that TV was a big influential factor in all
of our lives, right?
Obviously, first the tv, thenthe cell phone, the computer,
you know, all the things.
And now what we're seeing isthat it is the same.
I mean, think about it, if wehave CNN or Fox News, or
M-S-N-B-C on all the time, whatis happening in the communities?
(31:26):
The energy is changing.
Because A, the politics, youknow, warrant strong emotional
reactions, or even if you put asoap opera on, there's so much
going on in that soap operathat's emotional and dramatic
that you get those reactionsbecause that's the energy that's
(31:49):
influencing the room.
Now we're looking at it from aperspective of we can, again,
intentionally promote the energyin the room that we need to be
successful.
Oh my, yes.
In giving and receiving care.
Allyson (32:06):
yes.
And I know that some people willsay, well, wait a minute, but I
thought, we aren't supposed towatch TV when people have
dementia, not regular tv, right?
And what we say is that thetelevision.
Is the, the box, the televisionis the tool through which, the
mechanism through which we aredelivering the tool.
(32:28):
The tool being these videos, toreduce agitation, to soothe, to
set the tone right.
We have clients who in theafternoon put on the nature
videos.
They'll just play the naturechannel and nature videos will
roll just to kind of.
Soothe.
We have clients who, and byclients I mean long-term care
communities who use inia videosto promote and support
(32:51):
activities, right?
If we're gonna be doing anactivity today where we're going
to be planting seeds in littlecups first, we watch a gardening
video to get people in the moodto help them understand, to get
them excited about what we'regoing to do.
Good idea.
We're going for a walk inautumn.
Let's first watch the FallingLeaves video so people have a
sense of what we're doing andgenerate a little excitement
(33:15):
about it, as well as havingvideos that are standalone
activities in and of themselves,like the quiz videos, trivia
videos, and so on.
Erin (33:25):
Yeah.
we talked about modeling, butpre-framing is a really
technical term in communication,I think we all naturally use
pre-framing, in a way when we'retrying to get something that we
want, but I don't think that weuse it intentionally when we are
trying to.
Influence people in a caregivingperspective or in a leadership
(33:46):
perspective.
Or if you have a family member,um, when they're moving in, you
can use pre-framing to help themunderstand you are gonna love
the caregivers that work on thishall.
You know, you're gonna loveliving here because this is
what's gonna happen.
You are.
Reframing their experience tolook for the positive in things
(34:06):
versus what their fear is.
Trying to tell them what theirguilt is, trying to tell them a
family member moving a loved onein, or if it's a resident, what
my rebellion's trying to say.
Right?
And so if you are going on anactivity, walk in the autumn.
What a great way.
To motivate and influence andinspire your people to want to
(34:29):
join by watching the leavesfall.
Like that is, a cognitivecommunication technique that
allows a person to understandboth visually and through
hearing it, that this is whatwe're gonna do and then that
(34:49):
gives us time to say.
I'm so excited to go see theleaves fall.
We're gonna have so much fun andyou're gonna get your exercise
and you're gonna feel good whileyou're doing it, who wouldn't
wanna do that?
Allyson (35:02):
Oh my gosh, yes.
Is pre-framing.
And you know, that pre-framingconcept.
I wanna also talk about thatwith, training.
So we have a new feature that wehave created, which is for every
month of the year we have achannel.
Related to that month'sactivities.
(35:22):
So for instance, if you go intothe June activities channel, you
will see that there is a PDFthat you can click on and it
opens up and it is ideas foractivities that are relevant to
the month of June.
For each of those activities, weidentify the Zia videos that
support that activity.
So if the activity is making,at, on the 4th of July, making,
(35:47):
construction paper flags, forinstance, what we start with is
let's watch the 4th of Julyvideo.
Let's play the American PatriotSing-along so that we sing those
songs together, get us in themood.
Maybe we watch a picnic video.
And then the thing, the activityis that we make these flags
together.
So we're trying to help staff.
(36:08):
Preload for them.
What are the things that I couldbe doing that might be
meaningful to my people livingwith dementia?
And then of course, we also havea channel that is caregiver
education.
We have a lot of educationvideos that we have done
ourselves.
And unlike most caregivereducation videos, that is a
talking head.
(36:28):
Ours are very artfully, they'revery kind of, can't stop
ourselves.
They're very artfully done.
They're beautiful, they're easyto watch, and it's all,
educational stuff that's basedon lessons that I still teach to
professional caregivers.
Erin (36:44):
Yeah.
It's really, I think it's justone of those gaps that you were
talking about.
It's not anything that I everlearned inside of a community.
You know, as, as technical, Ithink is what we're talking
about now, just the practicaldefinition of pre-framing, which
literally means just setting thestage.
Giving PE people a resident oran associate or a manager, a
(37:07):
heads up of what's coming next,and then explaining why it
matters like that is as simpleas it gets.
But too often we just say, okay,this is what we're doing and we
forget the, what's in it for me,the what's in it for them.
To engage them and to want themto connect to the meaningful
activity, whether it's training,meeting where we're equipping
(37:31):
and empowering them, or anactivity of daily living for a
resident, it's really, reallyimportant.
So I think it's a veryinnovative way of incorporating.
Basic and fundamental skillsthat we seem to have lost along
the way,
Allyson (37:49):
I agree with you completely.
Erin (37:51):
Yeah, it really is.
So we've talked a lot abouttraining, empowering and culture
awareness.
Do you have advice for theexecutive directors who say, I
don't have time to train my teamon the basics?
Do you run into that?
How do we reframe, that mindset.
Allyson (38:13):
Yeah.
take advantage of staffmeetings.
If you were to play a nineminute.
Education video from Zia,whether it's about how to deal
with hallucinations, how tocommunicate with people living
with dementia, how to accepttheir reality, right?
If you watch one of those videosand incorporate that into the
conversation.
Then I think that you have staffwho are, all learning something
(38:37):
at the same time and you invitepeople to talk about specific
residents or specific issuesthat this topic relates to.
So, you know, the, woman in 3 09.
Keeps talking about seeingchildren underneath the chair.
This hallucinations video willhelp us understand what her
experience is and how we canbetter support her.
(38:59):
So I think that for, I wouldhope that somebody who is in a
leadership position wouldconstantly, at every opportunity
be offering educational, optionsto staff, but also with some
sort of incentive.
Think that for a lot of folkswho are working in, for people
(39:22):
who work, right?
Mm-hmm.
We wanna be paid for the thingsthat we do.
And even if it's justrecognition, you know that when
you take this, when that we takethe time to point out, so last
week we watched thehallucination video and then.
Jane, stand up if, if youwouldn't mind, and just talk
about what you did this weekwith the A man in, in 2 0 6
(39:43):
because it was brilliant.
You clear, like you, you sodemonstrated what we learned in
that constantly looking foropportunities to praise staff
for doing things the right way,I think is just vitally
important.
Erin (39:58):
She just like answered my next question, what would you
tell a new executive directorwho you know would make training
a priority?
You know what the philosophy is,and that was a perfect answer to
that question.
You've got to highlight what'sdoing right and you gotta give
them an opportunity to talkabout what they learn because
(40:19):
reflection turns, you know,experience into positive
insights that we can learn from.
Allyson (40:26):
and I also think that it's really, if at all possible
to have some sort offoundational philosophy around
care.
So for instance, I know of acare community that
foundationally says that we.
Are a community that adheres tovalidation theory.
(40:49):
For people who are not familiarwith it, validation theory,
Naomi file, FEIL.
And it's about accepting aperson's reality, if the entire
community.
Is foundationally based on theidea that we are a community
that believes in validationtheory.
Then that would be the protocolthat we use when we're doing any
(41:11):
kind of training tying it backto how does that sit with
validation theory?
That's just one, right?
There's also Dr.
Allen Power in his brilliantbook, dementia Beyond Drugs,
talks about this concept calledcognitive ramps.
So for an executive director to.
Explore what are the differentfoundational methodologies that
(41:33):
we use in supporting people withdementia that we adhere to in
our community?
We're always looking foropportunities to create
cognitive ramps for ourresidents.
And so to then at every staffmeeting, to be able to come back
to that and say, how did we livethat this week?
What are the opportunities thatwe saw to.
Put into play validation theoryor to put into play the idea of
(41:57):
cognitive ramps.
It sounds really complicated.
It is not.
Alright.
I mean, validation trainingInstitute, which by the way, we
have just done a partnership, soI'm well.
I love I, Naomi file is one ofmy, One of my greatest heroes.
I was so fortunate to get tomeet her daughter, who is now
(42:17):
leading the institute.
And she said, could we possiblystore our videos on Zia to make
them available to everybodyeverywhere for free?
And I said, oh my gosh.
Yes.
We have the honored to do that.
Right?
Yeah.
And that's one of the thingsthat we're trying to do at Zenia
is that we have.
We are increasing ourpartnerships with people who do
(42:37):
amazing training and storingthose videos within Zia so that
in a long-term care community,they have a wealth of
information that's available tostaff.
The other thing that we do isonce a month.
Now we're doing it twice amonth, at least once a month, we
host an online support group,which is free, which is where I
(42:59):
am there.
People who subscribe to Zia joinme on a call, and I deliver a
lesson, and then we just talk.
We talk for an hour.
We try our best as a company towalk the talk and to make
education available and to makesupport available because I
think that that is what we needto de-stress the people who are
in support positions, whetherthey are at the executive level,
(43:22):
whether they are staff or familycare.
Erin (43:25):
I think there's a lot of power in educating, equipping,
and empowering people.
Oh, and it really, it reallystarts with them.
They have to want it, they haveto be aware they need it, and
then they have to implement itand then take the time to look
at it.
I think that Zia TV is reallymaking headway and, and
hopefully as senior living, abig senior living ship, you
(43:48):
know, understands.
The way that we all should begoing, that more people can, can
become part of this community.
Yes.
Right?
Yes.
Educating, equipping, andempowering people.
So how do they, how do peoplereach out to you and contact you
and find more out about Zia tv?
Allyson (44:10):
we have a website, which is zia tv.com.
Z-I-N-N-I-A tv.com.
On that website, people can lookat the top of the screen,
there's an option to watchvideos.
So you can watch sample videos.
You have a really clear sense ofwhat are we talking about here?
There's a free 14 day trial andbusinesses are welcome to try it
(44:33):
for 14 days.
See what they think.
It is best watched on a largescreen tv.
So we have, Zenia is an app forRoku, for iOS, for Apple tv,
Amazon Fire.
So most organizations have it ona TV and then they also have it,
running through, say Roku forinstance.
If they had an LG TV, which isanother, which is like.
(44:56):
$30 to buy the adapter.
When an organization buys a Ziasubscription, it's good for all
of the common TVs and if theyuse iPads, so we have
communities that might have a TVin a lobby area, another
communal tv, and they have sixiPads that the staff uses
because Zia is great on an iPadfor one-on-one stuff.
(45:19):
Like if I'm gonna go wake up.
Mr.
Jones in five 13, I can go inwith my iPad and say, Hey, good
morning.
And then I can play the goodmorning video right there in the
moment.
That's nice him understand howto get outta bed.
so one subscription is good forall of those and Zia is
extremely affordable, Yeah, Ithink it's a great solution.
Erin (45:40):
It's very mission driven.
Thank you Allison for beinghere.
We appreciate your passion andyour mission, right?
And using your own lifeexperience to solve the gaps
that you witnessed.
You know, that's what businessesare for, right?
Solve those problems.
And I agree.
Being an example of that ispowerful.
So, all right, y'all check outZia tv and as always, aspire for
(46:04):
more for you.
Own your story so you can createthe future that you want.
Have a good day.
Allyson (46:12):
Thank you, Erin.
What if the key to better Dementia care isn't more
complexity?
But it's actually moresimplicity.
In this episode, I sit down withAllison Schreyer, founder of Zia
tv, to explore how modeling andpre-framing and bite-size
learning can transform how wetrain staff, support our
(00:21):
residents, and lead with empathyinside our senior living
communities.
If you have ever said, theyshould already know how to do
this.
You get frustrated about that.
This episode hopefully will be awake up call for you because
great care doesn't start whenyou start checking off the boxes
(00:43):
in your training, your corporatetraining, leadership checklist.
It starts with very clear, verysimple connection to your team.
And I'm so happy to welcomeAllison here today, founder of
Zia tv, who's going to talkabout all of that and more.
(01:05):
Welcome Allison.
Thank you, Erin.
It's great to be here.
Yes, I, was able to hear.
A lot about your story throughsome friends of mine, and I
wanted to have you here so yourstory could be told to my
listeners as well and reach thepeople inside of a community
because I think Zia TV has a lotto offer in very unique and
(01:28):
innovative ways.
So tell us about you, how yougot here.
What you're doing is solve somereally big, complex problems.
Allyson (01:41):
Well, thank you for that invitation.
So, so many people who work inthe, dementia sphere, my
background starts with that partof the story, which is that my
husband was diagnosed withfrontotemporal dementia when he
was 47.
Right around the same time mystepdad was diagnosed with
vascular dementia and mystepmother had.
(02:04):
Undiagnosed, but was almostcertainly Alzheimer's disease.
So I was.
Suddenly, as is always the case,thrust into the role of trying
to figure out how do you supportthe person who's living with me,
who has dementia, while alsosupporting my parents and their
partners who are living withdementia.
So it required that I learn alot pretty quickly, but I think
(02:27):
that's the case with everybody.
I happen to be a, deeplyinquisitive person.
So I really wanted to understandwhy, what's going on in my
husband's brain?
Why is he responding to theworld in the way that he is?
And so that led to me taking abunch of classes and watching
videos, reading books.
(02:49):
And gaining some understanding.
It also, was the case that I didmany things wrong while
supporting my husband, and thatcertainly taught me how to do
things correctly.
So, deep curiosity, I think isthe greatest thing that a
caregiver can be blessed with.
And when I, really latched on tothe idea that I had to get a job
(03:13):
right?
I had to get work because myhusband had been a software
engineer.
I was very comfortable being astay at home mom.
How lucky was I that I was withour, our kids were 12 and 15
when he was diagnosed, but howlucky was I that I had this life
where I.
Doing writing and being thestay-at-home mom and, driving
people places and suddenly wow.
(03:35):
Life took a big, sharp turn andI wasn't ready for it.
So, I, for a couple of years wewere blessed to have enough
money in savings that I was ableto make our family run off of
that.
But then, especially once myhusband moved into long-term
care.
I had to find a job and thequestion was, what would I do?
My background is in technologyand one of the things that I did
(03:56):
back then is that I, I taught, Ibecame an expert in certain
systems that other people wantedto know about and I loved
teaching, but I thought, I coulddo that again, except that I'm
not an expert in anything.
And then I.
But what?
I know a lot about caregivingand I bet I could get to a point
where I would have something tooffer other caregivers.
(04:18):
So, Erin, that led to me gettingcertifications.
I did the whole TPA snow route,and gained certifications there.
I started teaching for free inlibraries and churches and
wherever I could go.
To just spread the word todementia family caregivers.
I had a, a class that Ideveloped that was called How to
(04:39):
Be Friends with People LivingWith Dementia because I
recognized that a lot of peopleshied away from our family
simply because they didn't knowhow to be with Evan.
They didn't know how tocommunicate with him.
They were afraid.
What happens if he gets violent?
There's so much misunderstandingabout what dementia is and what
dementia is not, and how to bewith people Eventually, I.
(05:02):
Got certified to teach classesin long-term care here in
Washington State.
And so for four years I was inlong-term care communities where
my students were the people whowere the boots on the ground
caregivers.
I had activity folks, I had, Ihad executive directors in my
classes and I taught them themandated.
(05:26):
Full day dementia and full daymental health classes that are
required if you want to work inlong-term care in Washington
State.
And from there, I moved into theUniversity of Washington, where
I worked for three years,helping to launch and then
manage a program that was.
Education again, but this timethe students were primary care
(05:47):
providers who were trying tolearn how to better detect,
diagnose, and support theirpatients who are living with
dementia and then there's awhole other story, which is how
Zinnia TV came to be, but thatis the basis of what allowed me
to feel comfortable supporting.
People, whether they are familymembers, professional
(06:08):
caregivers, or even healthcareproviders in their questions
about how to best serve peoplewho are living with dementia.
Erin (06:16):
That's a true definition of what an overnight success
looks like, right?
You start free, you startworking in the churches and the
libraries.
You start educating, you startgetting the reps in.
And everybody's definition ofsuccess is different.
that's important to establishhere.
But look where we start.
We start at the bottom.
(06:38):
And we get the reps in and weknow that there's something more
than the pain that I'm in.
Look where we are now.
I mean, it's a beautiful storyon how life.
Can use your deepest, darkesttrauma, the deepest, darkest
wounds and turn it intosomething that is triumphant if
(07:04):
you allow it to be that way.
Right?
If you own the parts of thestory, like you said, that
people don't know how to relate,they don't know how to act, and
therefore they were distant.
And you use that pain to helpeducate instead of sit in the
pain.
And look where that took you.
(07:25):
Yeah, that's huge.
Thank you for thatacknowledgement.
Yeah.
That's so important.
Just with my own story, likehearing that as a parent of
somebody who's unique and thenknowing that story with your
husband and seeing that from myexperience inside of a
community, there's somethingreally important about
(07:46):
education, which is the topicthat we have today, because
people don't engage because theyfeel uncomfortable.
Well, what happens?
How do you go from uncomfortableto comfortable?
It's education, it's practice,it's real life experience, you
know?
Allyson (08:06):
It absolutely is.
And, just yesterday, Ifacilitate support groups for
family members who aresupporting loved ones with
dementia.
And just yesterday, that was thetopic that we were taught.
The topic was, how do I knowwhen it's time for my loved one
to go to long-term care?
And so one of the questions was,well, what about if the person
(08:28):
is starting to get agitated andanxious all the time?
Is that the time to send them tolong-term care?
And I said, no, that's the timeto think about what you might be
doing wrong.
That is, Right.
Because somebody's gotta change.
And it can't be the person whohas dementia.
It has to be the person who hasthe big, fat, healthy brain who
(08:51):
is capable of change.
And so if a person is routinelygetting agitated and anxious and
upset, the first step is to getcurious and figure out what are
the triggers and how do Irespond to those triggers in a
way that will not make thingsworse, but will instead soothe
and reduce agitation.
(09:11):
So that gets back to your point.
Education.
If you understand what's goingon physically in the brain of a
person who's living withdementia and how that translates
into the way that one respondsto the world, my gosh, that's a
game changer.
Erin (09:28):
It's a huge game changer.
It's huge.
And it's being intentional, Ithink, for too many people.
We're not intentional.
And being intentional aboutknowing what you need to know,
knowing what you don't know thatyou need to know, and then
applying that.
That can change your life.
In every facet.
So I think it's a really greatstory that you used your pain,
(09:51):
right?
Your family's paying to fuel, amission to create.
Something that helps people.
I know that you must have seenthe gaps through your own
personal and professionaljourney.
You must have seen gaps intraining that caused you to
understand, Hey, I can helpsolve this problem and somehow
(10:13):
combine technology and educationtogether in a unique way.
And that led to the creation ofZia tv.
So what were those gaps?
And then how do you, how do youuse your product as Z-E-S-T-V to
fill those gaps?
(10:34):
'Cause it's interesting, right?
Allyson (10:36):
Well talk from a long-term care perspective,
right?
What I found working with mystudents who had been through
CNA training, right?
They had the physical skills.
So they understood how you bathea person.
They understood the basics abouthow to dress a person.
(10:58):
They understood the basics abouthow to help a person eat a meal,
but what they seemed to reallylack was a sense of what could
go south and how to correctlyrespond to that.
And also, I will admit that,while the training.
That was mandated by WashingtonState.
(11:21):
I thought, great.
Their curriculum was thorough.
It was clear they had greatexamples.
I liked following theircurriculum, but I really
deviated a lot because I felt itwas imperative.
If you're gonna be supportingpeople who are living with
dementia, that you alsounderstand some of the things
that Tiva snow.
(11:41):
Pushes, right?
Like hand underhand, feedinginstead of just poking a spoon
in someone's mouth and how touse hand underhand to help
people dress.
And the positive physicalapproach.
How do you, how do you approachsomebody in a way that doesn't
kind of put them off or scarethem or agitate them?
And so I think that some of thegaps that I saw is that the
training that people receivedseemed to be training that was.
(12:05):
Old fashioned, they werelearning things that were part
of a curriculum that wasprobably written 20 years ago,
and it didn't seem like thecurriculum was where wherever
they were getting theirtraining, it lacked the
personhood that I think is soimportant when one is working in
a caregiving, caregivingsituation.
(12:26):
The other gaps that I saw Erin,were that the people who were my
students.
Were overworked, right?
They, they had so many thingsthat they needed to do in a very
short period of time, and theremay be, in some cases, one.
Caregiver to 14 residents.
(12:47):
So how does one caregiver with14 residents also establish a
sense of companionship andconnection with the residents?
Because it all starts withconnection, right?
It has to be a person to person.
Connection there needs to be theperson to person connection,
where we are more than just aperson who's coming in to scrub
(13:09):
something, right?
We're coming into work in a veryintimate way with another human
being.
How do we have them trust us?
How do we have them know us?
How do we have them not feellike we are rushing through to
get this done so that we cantake it off of our agenda?
And move on to the next person.
And that's hard when a personhas too many people that they're
caring for.
(13:30):
So part of the gap has to dowith education.
Part of the gap has to do withjust the realities that,
especially right now, peopleare, there's not enough.
Staff right there, there's ahuge shortage.
And so people are taking on morethan they should.
And so therefore it is more thanever important to have tools to
(13:53):
lean into technology as amechanism to help create
connection, to help reduceagitation, to help educate
caregivers.
And that's where Zia comes in.
Erin (14:08):
Leadership inside senior living is layered.
It's very complex, it's veryrushed.
Caregivers get a lot ofattention, because they deserve
it on how overworked they areand leaders.
Struggle with the same thing.
I think that leaders strugglewith the connection piece and
(14:29):
knowing how to connect withcaregivers to get the most outta
them, to educate them in a veryconnected and specific way for
them.
What have you seen in yourcareer that leaders often
overlook when it comes to staffeducation?
And resident, engagement.
Allyson (14:49):
Yeah.
So one of the big issues that Ihave seen is lack of cultural
awareness.
Where leaders assume thateverybody learns the same way.
Yes, I was one of those.
Yes.
So lack of an understanding oflearning styles and a respect
for different learning stylesand lack of cultural awareness
(15:10):
where a person who is here fromanother country.
Who does not think or do thingsthe same way as the person who
is training them, and sotherefore, the person who is the
caregiver from another cultureis made to feel disrespected, is
made to feel.
Less than and is not necessarilypicking up how they're supposed
(15:36):
to be performing this duty, andit could be because of language
issues as well as culturalissues.
So I think that that is, that isa huge gap that I see.
I have a dear friend who managesthe memory care unit at a
community here in the Seattlearea.
And she was complaining bitterlyabout just some of the staff and
(15:59):
some of the male staffespecially who were from other
countries who really didn'trespect her and who were pushing
back against her.
We had a conversation about thefact, well, culturally it's not.
Don't like, don't take itpersonally.
Right.
But you have to come up with asolution because culturally, the
way that they have spent theirentire lives is in a society
(16:20):
where women are not wellrespected.
So how do you push?
How do you work with that?
And the first part is to justrecognize it.
Recognize that it's an issue,and then from there, open up
conversation in a meaningful wayto try to figure out how do you
and I.
Staff member work together tomake sure that we are meeting
(16:41):
our goals, that we are mutuallymeeting our goals.
And so I think that that issomething that's also overlooked
is what does the caregiver want?
What do they expect?
What do they need for managementto allow them to be successful?
And so creating a communicationflow that invites people to be
able to say.
(17:02):
This isn't working for me isreally important.
Instead of just handing somebodya list of rules and saying, this
is the way that you're going todo things in this community.
Erin (17:12):
Yeah.
You know, we make it sound sosimple.
Awareness and curiosity are likethe two basic things you need in
order to move in this world.
It's really hard to be thatsimple because everybody is so
busy.
But if you take a beat and likeyou said, be aware, don't just
(17:36):
ignore this issue'cause it's notgoing away.
You have to be aware and thenyou have to be curious.
Not judgmental.
Not defensive, and notisolating.
But curious and ask thequestions.
That's such good word.
The 15 Commitments of ConsciousLeadership.
Allyson (17:59):
What it's all about is this idea of awareness of what
do the people who, report to meneed.
Importance of as in anyrelationship, right?
So often what happens I, in myown personal relationship,
right?
What I find is that sometimeswhen I'm expressing a concern,
(18:21):
the person who I am expressingit to immediately gets their
back and gets defensive becausethey feel like they're being
attacked.
And so to recognize theimportance of instead of getting
defensive, get curious.
Always, instead of gettingdefensive, get curious.
Why is the person saying thislistening?
(18:42):
One of the things that I taughtin my classes to caregivers was
the importance of activelistening.
How do I really take in whatsomebody is saying and hear it
without filtering it through thefilter of what I want to hear?
Right.
I need to hear what somebody isactually saying.
(19:03):
And as you just said sobeautifully, stay out of
judgment.
I cannot judge a person for whatthey say.
And the other thing that is soimportant to recognize is that I
cannot push back on youremotional response.
And this is with everybody whowe're dealing with, but I cannot
invalidate your emotionalresponse.
So if somebody says, I'm really.
(19:24):
Scared about the way that thingsare happening with this resident
who I'm supporting.
I could never, it would never beappropriate for me to say,
you're not scared or, fear isn'tan appropriate response here.
She's scared.
So you need to get curious aboutwhy is she, and what does she
need?
In order to not feel that way.
(19:45):
Yeah.
Sorry.
I'm not even sure if this iswhere we intended to go with the
conversation, but it
Erin (19:49):
No, it's so good though.
It's so good.
It really is so good and itreally does lead me into, like
the point of today's episode tome is about modeling and
pre-framing, which are thefundamentals when we are talking
(20:10):
about.
Educating caregivers and caringfor loved ones.
Pre-framing is something I useall the time as a parent with my
children.
You know, obviously one has someunique needs, and the other one
is a typical child andpre-framing works.
And this is something that whenI was looking into Zia TV and
(20:31):
talking to you about it, that'swhat these videos do, right?
They pre-frame and they model.
The activity of daily living orthe next phase that we're moving
into that is a nonverbalcommunication, right?
And so if we can combine thecaregiving verbal instructions
(20:54):
with a video of nonverbalcommunication with a modeling
and pre-framing way, soundscomplicated to some, but
actually is.
Seamless in approach.
So share this powerful idea inmore detailed way.
Allyson (21:12):
Absolutely.
So first, let me just definewhat Zia is.
Yes.
So Zia tv and it's Zia theflowers, Z-I-N-N-I-A.
Which came about because I am a,passionate gardener and one of
my favorite flowers is Zia's.
And one of the reasons I lovethem is because they put up with
a lot, right?
So even if conditions aresuboptimal, they still do really
(21:34):
well.
And so it seemed an appropriatename for what we were
developing.
Zenia is an app that delivers,it's a streaming service.
So if you think about Netflix orHulu or any of those, Amazon
Prime, right?
deliveries, mechanisms forvideos.
However, the videos that westream are custom curated by us
(21:57):
to be digestible by and engagingfor people living with dementia.
And this came from my experienceas a family caregiver when I was
looking for a tool to help me.
Connect with and engage with myhusband who was nonverbal.
I had found that if I show himimages of things, so our, our
(22:19):
conversations tend to betransactional when we're talking
with a person who's nonverbal,you just sort of get into this
yucky yak mode about, I did goshopping today.
You wouldn't believe the priceof whatever.
Which is of no interest to theperson with dementia, but it's
what's in my mind.
And so that's what I talk about.
Instead, what I figured out is,oh, but if I bring in a magazine
and we look at pictures, there'ssomething for you to look at,
(22:40):
something for you to focus on,and it can inspire a
conversation that is meaningful.
So if I brought in a skimagazine and he loves skiing, we
could talk about skiing, wecould talk about specific ski
trips that we have done.
We could talk about equipment,we could talk about types of
snow, whatever it might be.
I discovered that, well, I couldalso do that with my phone.
(23:02):
I've got lots of pictures on myphone and I discovered that I
could make little videos on myphone using Apple's memories
product so we could watch alittle video that is comprised
of all of the images of dogs saythat are on my phone.
I wanted to, however, havecontent that wasn't on my phone
because I wanted to do skivideos and I wanted to do.
(23:23):
Rafting videos.
And so in a phone conversationwith somebody who was at Apple,
I got connected to the personwho created the little thing
that I was using on my phone tomake videos.
I asked him, how do I get morecontent?
And he was oh my God, wait,you're you making videos to
reach out to people withdementia?
And I said, yes.
And he said, oh my gosh, wenever thought about that as a
(23:44):
possible use case.
He had recently left Apple.
He became my business partner,and we started Zia together.
That was back in 2018.
So now moving forward, here weare at 2025, right?
Our app didn't come out until2022.
Prior to that, we were justiterating, iterating, iterating,
building content, and we werevery lucky early on to be able
(24:06):
to get our videos into aresearch project at the
University of British Columbiain conjunction with Vancouver
General Hospital That.
Was invaluable because we hadstudents going into long-term
care communities, showing themour videos, and we were
constantly getting feedbackabout what's working, what's not
working.
(24:26):
Meanwhile, we were going intocare communities and showing
videos and figuring out what todo.
So where we are now is thatZenia is about 30 different
channels I will call them, whichare basically categories.
So it could be a category oftravel videos or of animal
videos, or of hobbies or offaith-based videos.
(24:47):
There are singalongs, there arequizzes.
What we know is that people withdementia have a really hard time
tracking a plot.
Telling fact from fiction,paying attention to different
characters.
Erin (25:00):
Mm-hmm.
Allyson (25:00):
Processing audio and video that is happening at the
same time.
I will digress for just a momentand share that about, uh, in
May, I was at a conference, theMichigan Assisted Living
Association conference, where Iled a panel that was called Low
Tech and No Tech Solutions forpeople living with Dementia.
The panelists all had dementia.
(25:23):
Now, obviously they're prettyhigh functioning people if they
were able to get to a conferencein Michigan, right?
To be on this panel.
I asked them, what do you guyslike to watch on TV?
And all?
But one of them said, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh.
I don't watch TV anymore.
Why don't you watch tv?
I just, can't pay attention.
I mean, I can't follow what the,who did.
I just see that character.
(25:43):
Is she the one who did whatever?
I can't follow the plot.
I'm constantly asking the personI'm sitting with to tell me what
just happened.
And it's like I'm trying totrack the audio and the video at
the same time.
It's too much.
I get so frustrated and anxious.
That I'd rather just not watchtv.
So now if you think about all ofthe care communities, which was
the case where my husband lived,he was in five different
(26:05):
communities, and in three ofthem the TV was on all the time.
And so you think about somebodylike him who's in a wheelchair,
parked in front of a tv, and youthink about this experience of
people who are still very earlyin their progression, cannot
follow regular tv, and yet weput people in front of a TV and
so watching regular programming,and so when I would show up and
(26:27):
find him pounding his chest andscreaming, or I would find him
looking around the room lost,like, how do I get out of here
or find him sleeping?
It makes complete sense thatthose were his reactions because
he was being exposed tosomething that was troubling on
a daily basis.
So the goal in creating Ziavideos is to have something that
(26:48):
is slow paced, that is,valuable, that's meaningful.
And a lot of our work is basedon a paper that I discovered
early on that was calledtelevision viewing.
And people with Dementia Livingand Long-term Care, that was the
name of the paper.
And Dr.
Kate Di Mudros and her studentswent to long-term care
communities.
They showed people I love Lucy.
(27:10):
Jerry Springer, Bob Rosspainting pictures, and what they
discovered is that most of thosewere not meaningful at all, that
people had a really hard timepaying attention to them because
of these deficits that we'vedescribed.
But the one video that seemed toperhaps be useful was one called
Venice, which was basically likescreensavers images.
(27:31):
Or slow moving videos withmusic, which is what Zia is with
lots and lots of differenttopics.
So if I know, I, we have I somany stories that people share
with us about, we, my mom, wethought my mom was nonverbal and
then we showed her the Ziasewing video.
She's crazy about sewing.
And when she heard the sound offabrics being snipped, her eyes
(27:52):
opened up.
She leaned in, she watched thewhole video about sewing.
And by the whole video, I meanlike.
We're talking about seven to 12minutes.
Right.
It's not like these are fulllength films.
Mm-hmm.
And they, and he said, but atthe end of that, she started
talking.
She started telling us aboutsewing because we found the
unlock.
How do we connect with thisperson?
Which is why Zia can be sohelpful in long-term care.
(28:15):
If we sit and we watch a videowith someone, we can inspire
connection and conversation injust a couple of minutes.
Because we have tapped intosomething that is meaningful to
them.
So the videos are also hugelyhelpful to reduce agitation if
somebody is starting to getupset, that we can show them a
video, a visual distraction,something that pulls them in,
(28:38):
that helps lighten the mood.
And this was a huge part of theresearch.
Both at UBC and at a number ofother, places where we have
since done research, but you hadtalked about the modeling piece
and so I just wanna touch onthat.
We have a category of videosthat are called our Activity of
Daily Living videos.
And so there's a video called,let's Take Our Medication, let's
(28:59):
drink water, let's, use thetoilet.
Let's get dressed, let's getwashed up and let's brush our
teeth.
These are short videos.
That are not instructional.
It's not somebody saying,approach the toilet, pull down
your pants.
Instead, what it is, is simply avideo that shows people doing
the thing that we are about todo and.
(29:24):
Being successful, enjoying it.
So in the, let's drink water,video.
It is simply people clinkingtheir glasses, drinking water,
dogs drinking water, kitty catsdrinking water, babies drinking
water, people sitting across thetable from each other, drinking
water at a park, drinking water,and it's simply getting across
(29:44):
the idea that drinking water isa thing.
And it's something that we'reabout to do, so that by the time
I then offer you a drink ofwater, it's fully present in
your mind that drinking water isthe activity that's about to
happen.
And so in long-term carecommunities, they will, for
instance, put on the breakfastvideo before they serve
breakfast so that people seeothers picking up a fork, eating
(30:07):
breakfast, they get the thingthat we're doing is eating.
There are people who will usethe Good morning video, which
starts with a sun rising, and itstarts with a rooster crowing,
right?
These iconic images that tell usthe time of day is morning and
we're about to get up, and thenit goes in and it shows people
showering and it shows peoplethen eating their breakfast.
(30:29):
It shows people getting dressedso that we just show the flow of
what a morning is like.
Or we could then watch theeating breakfast video.
We have good night videos thatshow the reverse, right?
The sun is setting, the moon iscoming up in the sky, people are
putting on their pajamas,they're yawning.
It is time for us to go to bed,and we hear from people that if
(30:49):
they watch the same videos, thea DL videos on a regular basis,
that in general it reducesagitation around specific types
of activities.
Erin (31:01):
We always knew that TV was a big influential factor in all
of our lives, right?
Obviously, first the tv, thenthe cell phone, the computer,
you know, all the things.
And now what we're seeing isthat it is the same.
I mean, think about it, if wehave CNN or Fox News, or
M-S-N-B-C on all the time, whatis happening in the communities?
(31:26):
The energy is changing.
Because A, the politics, youknow, warrant strong emotional
reactions, or even if you put asoap opera on, there's so much
going on in that soap operathat's emotional and dramatic
that you get those reactionsbecause that's the energy that's
(31:49):
influencing the room.
Now we're looking at it from aperspective of we can, again,
intentionally promote the energyin the room that we need to be
successful.
Oh my, yes.
In giving and receiving care.
Allyson (32:06):
yes.
And I know that some people willsay, well, wait a minute, but I
thought, we aren't supposed towatch TV when people have
dementia, not regular tv, right?
And what we say is that thetelevision.
Is the, the box, the televisionis the tool through which, the
mechanism through which we aredelivering the tool.
(32:28):
The tool being these videos, toreduce agitation, to soothe, to
set the tone right.
We have clients who in theafternoon put on the nature
videos.
They'll just play the naturechannel and nature videos will
roll just to kind of.
Soothe.
We have clients who, and byclients I mean long-term care
communities who use inia videosto promote and support
(32:51):
activities, right?
If we're gonna be doing anactivity today where we're going
to be planting seeds in littlecups first, we watch a gardening
video to get people in the moodto help them understand, to get
them excited about what we'regoing to do.
Good idea.
We're going for a walk inautumn.
Let's first watch the FallingLeaves video so people have a
sense of what we're doing andgenerate a little excitement
(33:15):
about it, as well as havingvideos that are standalone
activities in and of themselves,like the quiz videos, trivia
videos, and so on.
Erin (33:25):
Yeah.
we talked about modeling, butpre-framing is a really
technical term in communication,I think we all naturally use
pre-framing, in a way when we'retrying to get something that we
want, but I don't think that weuse it intentionally when we are
trying to.
Influence people in a caregivingperspective or in a leadership
(33:46):
perspective.
Or if you have a family member,um, when they're moving in, you
can use pre-framing to help themunderstand you are gonna love
the caregivers that work on thishall.
You know, you're gonna loveliving here because this is
what's gonna happen.
You are.
Reframing their experience tolook for the positive in things
(34:06):
versus what their fear is.
Trying to tell them what theirguilt is, trying to tell them a
family member moving a loved onein, or if it's a resident, what
my rebellion's trying to say.
Right?
And so if you are going on anactivity, walk in the autumn.
What a great way.
To motivate and influence andinspire your people to want to
(34:29):
join by watching the leavesfall.
Like that is, a cognitivecommunication technique that
allows a person to understandboth visually and through
hearing it, that this is whatwe're gonna do and then that
(34:49):
gives us time to say.
I'm so excited to go see theleaves fall.
We're gonna have so much fun andyou're gonna get your exercise
and you're gonna feel good whileyou're doing it, who wouldn't
wanna do that?
Allyson (35:02):
Oh my gosh, yes.
Is pre-framing.
And you know, that pre-framingconcept.
I wanna also talk about thatwith, training.
So we have a new feature that wehave created, which is for every
month of the year we have achannel.
Related to that month'sactivities.
(35:22):
So for instance, if you go intothe June activities channel, you
will see that there is a PDFthat you can click on and it
opens up and it is ideas foractivities that are relevant to
the month of June.
For each of those activities, weidentify the Zia videos that
support that activity.
So if the activity is making,at, on the 4th of July, making,
(35:47):
construction paper flags, forinstance, what we start with is
let's watch the 4th of Julyvideo.
Let's play the American PatriotSing-along so that we sing those
songs together, get us in themood.
Maybe we watch a picnic video.
And then the thing, the activityis that we make these flags
together.
So we're trying to help staff.
(36:08):
Preload for them.
What are the things that I couldbe doing that might be
meaningful to my people livingwith dementia?
And then of course, we also havea channel that is caregiver
education.
We have a lot of educationvideos that we have done
ourselves.
And unlike most caregivereducation videos, that is a
talking head.
(36:28):
Ours are very artfully, they'revery kind of, can't stop
ourselves.
They're very artfully done.
They're beautiful, they're easyto watch, and it's all,
educational stuff that's basedon lessons that I still teach to
professional caregivers.
Erin (36:44):
Yeah.
It's really, I think it's justone of those gaps that you were
talking about.
It's not anything that I everlearned inside of a community.
You know, as, as technical, Ithink is what we're talking
about now, just the practicaldefinition of pre-framing, which
literally means just setting thestage.
Giving PE people a resident oran associate or a manager, a
(37:07):
heads up of what's coming next,and then explaining why it
matters like that is as simpleas it gets.
But too often we just say, okay,this is what we're doing and we
forget the, what's in it for me,the what's in it for them.
To engage them and to want themto connect to the meaningful
activity, whether it's training,meeting where we're equipping
(37:31):
and empowering them, or anactivity of daily living for a
resident, it's really, reallyimportant.
So I think it's a veryinnovative way of incorporating.
Basic and fundamental skillsthat we seem to have lost along
the way,
Allyson (37:49):
I agree with you completely.
Erin (37:51):
Yeah, it really is.
So we've talked a lot abouttraining, empowering and culture
awareness.
Do you have advice for theexecutive directors who say, I
don't have time to train my teamon the basics?
Do you run into that?
How do we reframe, that mindset.
Allyson (38:13):
Yeah.
take advantage of staffmeetings.
If you were to play a nineminute.
Education video from Zia,whether it's about how to deal
with hallucinations, how tocommunicate with people living
with dementia, how to accepttheir reality, right?
If you watch one of those videosand incorporate that into the
conversation.
Then I think that you have staffwho are, all learning something
(38:37):
at the same time and you invitepeople to talk about specific
residents or specific issuesthat this topic relates to.
So, you know, the, woman in 3 09.
Keeps talking about seeingchildren underneath the chair.
This hallucinations video willhelp us understand what her
experience is and how we canbetter support her.
(38:59):
So I think that for, I wouldhope that somebody who is in a
leadership position wouldconstantly, at every opportunity
be offering educational, optionsto staff, but also with some
sort of incentive.
Think that for a lot of folkswho are working in, for people
(39:22):
who work, right?
Mm-hmm.
We wanna be paid for the thingsthat we do.
And even if it's justrecognition, you know that when
you take this, when that we takethe time to point out, so last
week we watched thehallucination video and then.
Jane, stand up if, if youwouldn't mind, and just talk
about what you did this weekwith the A man in, in 2 0 6
(39:43):
because it was brilliant.
You clear, like you, you sodemonstrated what we learned in
that constantly looking foropportunities to praise staff
for doing things the right way,I think is just vitally
important.
Erin (39:58):
She just like answered my next question, what would you
tell a new executive directorwho you know would make training
a priority?
You know what the philosophy is,and that was a perfect answer to
that question.
You've got to highlight what'sdoing right and you gotta give
them an opportunity to talkabout what they learn because
(40:19):
reflection turns, you know,experience into positive
insights that we can learn from.
Allyson (40:26):
and I also think that it's really, if at all possible
to have some sort offoundational philosophy around
care.
So for instance, I know of acare community that
foundationally says that we.
Are a community that adheres tovalidation theory.
(40:49):
For people who are not familiarwith it, validation theory,
Naomi file, FEIL.
And it's about accepting aperson's reality, if the entire
community.
Is foundationally based on theidea that we are a community
that believes in validationtheory.
Then that would be the protocolthat we use when we're doing any
(41:11):
kind of training tying it backto how does that sit with
validation theory?
That's just one, right?
There's also Dr.
Allen Power in his brilliantbook, dementia Beyond Drugs,
talks about this concept calledcognitive ramps.
So for an executive director to.
Explore what are the differentfoundational methodologies that
(41:33):
we use in supporting people withdementia that we adhere to in
our community?
We're always looking foropportunities to create
cognitive ramps for ourresidents.
And so to then at every staffmeeting, to be able to come back
to that and say, how did we livethat this week?
What are the opportunities thatwe saw to.
Put into play validation theoryor to put into play the idea of
(41:57):
cognitive ramps.
It sounds really complicated.
It is not.
Alright.
I mean, validation trainingInstitute, which by the way, we
have just done a partnership, soI'm well.
I love I, Naomi file is one ofmy, One of my greatest heroes.
I was so fortunate to get tomeet her daughter, who is now
(42:17):
leading the institute.
And she said, could we possiblystore our videos on Zia to make
them available to everybodyeverywhere for free?
And I said, oh my gosh.
Yes.
We have the honored to do that.
Right?
Yeah.
And that's one of the thingsthat we're trying to do at Zenia
is that we have.
We are increasing ourpartnerships with people who do
(42:37):
amazing training and storingthose videos within Zia so that
in a long-term care community,they have a wealth of
information that's available tostaff.
The other thing that we do isonce a month.
Now we're doing it twice amonth, at least once a month, we
host an online support group,which is free, which is where I
(42:59):
am there.
People who subscribe to Zia joinme on a call, and I deliver a
lesson, and then we just talk.
We talk for an hour.
We try our best as a company towalk the talk and to make
education available and to makesupport available because I
think that that is what we needto de-stress the people who are
in support positions, whetherthey are at the executive level,
(43:22):
whether they are staff or familycare.
Erin (43:25):
I think there's a lot of power in educating, equipping,
and empowering people.
Oh, and it really, it reallystarts with them.
They have to want it, they haveto be aware they need it, and
then they have to implement itand then take the time to look
at it.
I think that Zia TV is reallymaking headway and, and
hopefully as senior living, abig senior living ship, you
(43:48):
know, understands.
The way that we all should begoing, that more people can, can
become part of this community.
Yes.
Right?
Yes.
Educating, equipping, andempowering people.
So how do they, how do peoplereach out to you and contact you
and find more out about Zia tv?
Allyson (44:10):
we have a website, which is zia tv.com.
Z-I-N-N-I-A tv.com.
On that website, people can lookat the top of the screen,
there's an option to watchvideos.
So you can watch sample videos.
You have a really clear sense ofwhat are we talking about here?
There's a free 14 day trial andbusinesses are welcome to try it
(44:33):
for 14 days.
See what they think.
It is best watched on a largescreen tv.
So we have, Zenia is an app forRoku, for iOS, for Apple tv,
Amazon Fire.
So most organizations have it ona TV and then they also have it,
running through, say Roku forinstance.
If they had an LG TV, which isanother, which is like.
(44:56):
$30 to buy the adapter.
When an organization buys a Ziasubscription, it's good for all
of the common TVs and if theyuse iPads, so we have
communities that might have a TVin a lobby area, another
communal tv, and they have sixiPads that the staff uses
because Zia is great on an iPadfor one-on-one stuff.
(45:19):
Like if I'm gonna go wake up.
Mr.
Jones in five 13, I can go inwith my iPad and say, Hey, good
morning.
And then I can play the goodmorning video right there in the
moment.
That's nice him understand howto get outta bed.
so one subscription is good forall of those and Zia is
extremely affordable, Yeah, Ithink it's a great solution.
Erin (45:40):
It's very mission driven.
Thank you Allison for beinghere.
We appreciate your passion andyour mission, right?
And using your own lifeexperience to solve the gaps
that you witnessed.
You know, that's what businessesare for, right?
Solve those problems.
And I agree.
Being an example of that ispowerful.
So, all right, y'all check outZia tv and as always, aspire for
(46:04):
more for you.
Own your story so you can createthe future that you want.
Have a good day.
Allyson (46:12):
Thank you, Erin.
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