| Over 80 % of our resident population has a diagnosis of some form of dementia. Managing responsive behaviours, reducing falls, improving the social engagement and quality of life of this resident population is always a challenge. The challenge is amplified when you couple dementia with severe vision loss. In the spring of 2016 our staff were fully adopting the philosophy of Gail Elliott’s DementiAbility Methods. DementiAbility is the practice of creating meaningful activities individualized to the resident. The resident’s needs, interests, skills and abilities are examined and their environment is prepared.
A recent admission who had both a diagnosis of blindness and dementia presented us with several challenges as she was not thriving in her new environment. Staff members of the multidisciplinary team together with family reviewed her care plan and discussed possible interventions that were intended to be individualized. It was soon identified that our traditional methods were not sufficient to deal with those two combined diagnoses.
We determined that of the 80% of our resident population that had dementia, 28% also had some form of vision loss. This presented an opportunity for us to improve the quality of life for not just one resident but potentially many others.
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