A New Kind of Activity Calendar Strategy for Dementia Care

Bella Groves is actively working to rethink and redesign activities and programming which contrasts with the "calendar" mentality in dementia care. Their team has been experimenting with developing different ways to be unregimented but structured, provide training and guidance to caregivers so that everyone at the community is treated as an activity professional, optimize engagement by having families contribute to dementia programming and learning to balance the practicality of group programming versus the need for individualized programming. The other big undercurrent through all this work is learning how to help families who are caring for a loved one living with dementia at home. The entire premise of Bella Groves as an organization is that they are testing and improving their approach and methods for the express purpose of sharing that knowledge with family caregivers.



Objectives:


• Differentiate a traditional activity calendar versus structured autonomy.
• Discuss the importance of dementia training with care staff who lead activities.
• Explain how to engage family members as active participants in the social contract of dementia care, which includes activities.