Accepting the Challenge: Challenging Situations in Dementia Care
Presented by Teepa Snow and Melanie Bunn
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This is part four of a four-part series, Accepting the Challenge, on caring for people with dementia. The fourth and final course in the series provides essential strategies for improving the daily life of a person with dementia by focusing on proactive engagement and responsive problem-solving. First, we explore how to integrate the person's past life roles and routines into a structured day filled with meaningful activities to promote competence and comfort. The course then offers a five-step problem-solving approach for care partners to systematically identify and address the unmet needs that trigger challenging behaviors, thereby reducing their frequency and intensity. Finally, the course wraps up by providing practical advice and techniques for maintaining a person's social connection by safely and confidently engaging them in community activities and outings.
Learning Objectives
- List the categories of time use and their role in creating meaningful daily engagement
- Identify ways to adapt activities based on a person's history, roles, and preferences
- Recognize how unmet needs may result in expressions of distress in dementia care
- Select appropriate steps from the Six Pieces of the Puzzle problem-solving framework
Meet your instructors
Teepa Snow
Teepa Snow is an advocate for those living with dementia. She has made it her personal mission to help families and professionals better understand how it feels to be living with such challenges and seeks to change and improve life for everyone involved. Her practice has included everything from neuro intensive care units in…
Melanie Bunn
Melanie Bunn, a Speaker and Mentor with Teepa’s Snow’s Positive Approach to Care®, received her undergraduate degree in nursing from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, her master’s degree in Family Health Nursing from Clemson University and a Post-Master’s Gerontological Nurse Practitioner Certificate from Duke…
Chapters & learning objectives
1. Meaningful Days
This chapter explains how to create a more supportive environment by understanding the person's past roles, routines, and preferences and using that knowledge to provide engaging, meaningful activities that foster competence, connection, and comfort throughout the day.
2. Challenging Situations
This chapter introduces a five-step problem-solving Approach to help care partners reduce or avoid common, challenging behaviors (such as repetitive actions, resisting care, or wandering) by systematically identifying the unmet needs that drive the behavior.
3. Community Activities
The final chapter of this course focuses on the importance of maintaining an active social life by providing strategies and ideas for safely and successfully engaging a person with dementia in community activities, such as familiar outings, visits, and social engagements.
More courses in this series
Accepting the Challenge: Defining Dementia and Brain Change
Teepa Snow and Melanie Bunn
Accepting the Challenge: Positive Physical Approach™ for Dementia
Melanie Bunn and Teepa Snow
Accepting the Challenge: The GEMS® Dementia States
Melanie Bunn and Teepa Snow
Accepting the Challenge: Challenging Situations in Dementia Care
Melanie Bunn and Teepa Snow