Changing Our Mindset About Dementia Rehabilitation: Facilitating Functional and Quality of Life Potential

Description:

In the long-term care setting, the number of elderly residents with a dementia diagnosis is growing. In recent years, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has increased their focus in the identification of residents with dementia with the intent to improve care and person-centered treatment in long term care, while optimizing behavioral health. Their mission is to reduce anti-psychotic medication through education and training. In an effort to partner with CMS’s initiative, this course will educate practitioners in the identification of individuals with dementia and how to provide optimal services through therapeutic intervention.

This course explains Claudia Allen’s ‘Cognitive Disabilities Model’ as a process for treating individuals with dementia and improving their quality of care. It focuses on preserving a resident’s quality of life by determining each individual’s ‘Best Ability to Function’. This course will educate therapists how to identify an individual’s abilities, interests, and possibilities and incorporate those into treatment sessions.

Allen has identified and described 6 levels of cognitive ability and an individual’s remaining abilities at each stage. This course will discuss each level in detail and identify the remaining abilities are in each stage. After describing each level of Allen’s Cognitive Disabilities Model, this course will then review each stage and will describe a variety of interventions that could be implemented for each level, including examples of short and long term goals. Documentation and reimbursement guidelines will also be reviewed.