I came across his blogs online. He basically is for restructuring our memory care and nursing homes. He says we need to do away with labels such as...they are an exiter, wanderer, pacer, and difficult. Our loved ones have been free their whole lives to do and go wherever they please. Then we lock them on a floor and in a room. If they decide to explore and get mad of why they can’t go, we then punish them and shut them up with drugs, which make them more confined. He is challenging care givers and facilities to come up with new ways. Also, he talks about different studies of how antipsychotics shouldn’t be given to those who have dementia. I ordered his books to see what other ways he’s come up with helping. I’ve been watching Teepa Snow as well. It’s rather hopeful that both are talking about new ways to handle dementia besides drugging them up. However, Powers does state different circumstances that call for antipsychotics.
What are your thoughts?
To be frank, I think there is little we can do to address the dreadful circumstances visited on us when to be frank we live too long. I think it is lovely to have these "goals". I simply wonder how realistic they are.
finally her neurologist prescribed anti psychotic with ssri. Now she sleeps better, she is in much better mood, drugs did not turn her comatosed or into a zombie. She still says she wants to leave but she’s not running for the door. She still sundowns and has hallucinations but the scale is lower now and it’s manageable for the caregivers. Most importantly, her mood is much better so her emotional well-being is much better now than being in the highly agitated state.
I know there’s a lot of loving dedicated family caregivers out there will devote their whole lives 24/7 to their LO’s to avoid using drugs to control the behaviors. My view is that, just like using Tylenol for body aches, or Claritin for allergies, antipsychotic drugs is there to minimize the pain and suffering and it can really help the LO’s quality of life and mental wellbeing.
Before we start to redesign ALF and MC, I think the emphasis should be on patient care (not having read his book yet, maybe it is). I've been to many different care facilities, some quite old and some very new, and it's not the building that makes the difference, it's the staff. An organization called PHI (https://phinational.org ) advocates for direct care workers. The following is directly from their website:
“ We believe that caring, committed relationships between direct care workers and their clients are at the heart of quality care. Those relationships work best when direct care workers receive high-quality training, living wages, and respect for the central role they play.” They cite 5 pillars of job quality: quality training, fair compensation, quality supervision and support, respect and recognition, and real opportunity.
Direct care workers today, not only care facility workers, but also home care workers, work for low pay, insufficient training, little or no recognition, poor supervision and lack of opportunity. Many of these workers we trust our LOs care to work several jobs just to stay out of poverty.
Certainly we secure the areas in MC for the safety of the residents. Does Dr. Power propose a “free range” facility? I, too, would like to see a better system to accommodate those living with dementia, but at what cost?