Category: Archive: Apr 2024

The 5 Main Flaws of Nonpharmacological Interventions (and How to Address Them Without Medication)

This post was excerpted from Dementia Beyond Disease: Enhancing Well-Being by G. Allen Power, M.D. (2017, Health Professions Press) Why Nonpharmacological Interventions Do Not Work This provocative heading may seem out of line for the author of a book called Dementia Beyond Drugs. Rest assured, I remain firmly rooted in the belief that most distress arises as expressions of unmet needs, and that drugs are not the answer. (For a deep dive on this, see Dementia Beyond Drugs: Changing the Culture of Care, Second Edition.) The problem lies not in that underlying philosophy, but…

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Can We Achieve Drug-Free Dementia Care?

It may seem unrealistic to expect that we can care for people without using any psychotropic drugs for their various expressions. What is clear, however, is that a new approach to dementia can drastically reduce the use of these medications, making them the exception rather than the rule. We have seen a similar learning curve with the use of physical restraints in nursing homes. Due to the tireless work of pioneers, including Carter Catlett Williams, Lois Evans, and Neville Strumpf, these once-common features of nursing homes are rapidly disappearing. Many nursing homes are now restraint-free; I have not personally ordered…

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The Dementia Experience

The Experiential Model of Dementia Care The biomedical model (that is, a mindset of dementia that focuses only on physical and cognitive decline) sees dementia mostly as neuropathology. However, viewing only what can be easily observed and measured is inadequate to our needs. We must ask ourselves: how is dementia experienced by the person with the changing brain? That experience is more than simple structural and chemical defects; many other factors come into play, such as life history, relationships, ethnicity and culture, values, spirituality, interactions, and coping styles. Seeing dementia as a life experience and viewing the world through those…

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