Category: Behaviors & Unmet Needs

4 Tips to Decrease Bullying

People who rarely interact with older adults can often perceive that the population is composed primarily of sweet little grandmas and grandpas who get along well with one another. So it is surprising to learn that bullying behaviors actually occur among older adults—especially in senior programs and senior living facilities. Interventions to address bullying among older adults must consider what older adults themselves have to say about potentially effective strategies, especially given that they may witness bullying incidents more often than staff members do. Assisted living residents offered the following suggestions for how senior living organizations can decrease bullying and…

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Ask the Author: Memory Aid Tips from Michelle Bourgeois

Memory and Communication Aids for People with Dementia, by Dr. Michelle Bourgeois, is a practical guide of communication and memory aids to significantly improve the ability of people with dementia and related memory impairments to stay connected, engaged, and functioning at their optimal level of independence. Here, Dr. Bourgeois answers questions from a reader of her book about specific incidents in his skilled nursing facility, and how best to use the aids to solve problems. This content covers the Reading Assessment Tool as well as using memory aids to meet unmet…

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The Shocking Phenomenon of Senior Bullying

Bullying is not an experience limited to childhood… When thinking of bullying, most people would picture schoolyard taunts, childish games, perhaps even being pushed and shoved—but certainly nothing that goes beyond grade school. However, new research has shown that bullying is not an experience limited to childhood, but is an epidemic occurring with an alarming frequency among older adults as well. Bullying among peers in senior programs and care settings (such as nursing homes and retirement communities) results in profoundly negative effects on the elders, the staff, and the community in which it is occurring. But little is known about…

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It’s Time to Revolutionize Elder Care

Dr. Al Power, award-winning author and internationally renowned geriatrician, opened the 2016 Eden Alternative International Conference with his keynote address focusing on the conference theme: It’s about time. Always an eloquent speaker, Al presented the audience with four points, all prefaced with, “It’s about time we…” Groundbreaking and possibly even controversial, the ideas presented here are entirely person-directed (the absolute core of culture change). Dr. Power presents his ideas with examples of model communities who adopted these practices—across the board, there was an increase in improved lives of elders in dementia care facilities. The…

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