Solve Challenging Dementia Behaviors

Credit

Handouts/Brochure

Speaker

Edward G. Shaw, MD, MA Related seminars and products

Empath Education, LLC

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Edward G. Shaw, MD, MA, is dually trained as a physician and mental health counselor. He was the primary care partner for his late wife, Rebecca, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2007 at age 53 and died in 2016 after a 9-year journey. Ed was a practicing academic radiation oncologist for 23 years, specializing in the treatment of adults and children with brain cancer. In 2010, inspired by Rebecca’s journey, his medical interest shifted to dementia diagnosis and treatment, and with his additional training in mental health counseling, he founded the Memory Counseling Program in 2011, part of the Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine and the Sticht Center on Healthy Aging and Alzheimer's Prevention at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The program serves individuals, couples, and families affected by Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia.

He is the author of four books. Along with coauthors Deborah Barr and Dr. Gary Chapman, he wrote Keeping Love Alive as Memories Fade: The 5 Love Languages and the Alzheimer’s Journey, which describes his moving personal story of care for Rebecca coupled with an innovative use of the 5 love languages in dementia counseling. He also wrote The Dementia Care Partner’s Workbook, a support group manual and self-study guide for dementia care partners, providing understanding, education, and hope for the long journey of dementia caregiving from diagnosis through end-of-life. He has also co-authored two resources for support group leaders, A Leader’s Manual for Dementia Care Partner Support Groups and A Support Group for People Living with Dementia: The Leaders Manual.

Dr. Shaw now devotes more time to public speaking, educating, and encouraging seniors, people living with dementia and their care partners, and medical/mental health/other healthcare professionals working in the fields of aging and dementia. He is also a part-time geriatric mental health counselor at New Salem Counseling in Winston-Salem and a PESI speaker for many years, on a variety of topics related to geriatrics and dementia.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Edward Shaw is an Emeritus Professor with Wake Forest School of Medicine and receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has stock ownership in Embodied Labs. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Edward Shaw is a member of American Counseling Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, and the Society for Neuro-Oncology.

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Objectives

1. Differentiate Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia using a strengths-based, functional abilities model.
2. Demonstrate mindfulness interventions and techniques to use for people living with dementia.
3. Analyze attachment theory as it relates to people living with dementia, including attachment loss, separation distress, and challenging behaviors.
4. Evaluate the 5 Love Language framework as a “toolkit” to build the emotional love connection with those affected by Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
5. Choose non-medication-based strategies to manage challenging behavioral expressions in people living with dementia.
6. Determine new frustration-ending alternatives to manage agitation, aggression, and other challenging behaviors.

Outline

• The medical model reimagined focusing on abilities, strengths, and resilience rather than disabilities, weaknesses, and neuropsychiatric symptoms
• 5 cognitive functions (attention/concentration, memory, executive function, language, visuospatial function)
• Personality
• Mood
• Orientation
• Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia
• Transform how you think about and problem-solve common challenges in Alzheimer’s disease and the other dementia types

• Mindfulness reimagined in the setting of dementia
• How mindfulness affects the autonomic nervous system
• Associative vs. dissociative experiences through the lens of mindfulness
• Embodied, sensory-based mindfulness strategies to use with people living with dementia

• Attachment theory reimagined in the setting of older adults
• Dementia as the ultimate attachment loss
• Separation distress responses in the person with dementia
  • The seeking response: Agitation, aggression, “going home,” wandering, resisting care
  • The withdrawing response: Depression, apathy, anhedonia
• Affirm, acknowledge, redirect: A simple, powerful attachment-based approach for challenging behavioral expressions of dementia

• Love reimagined in the context of dementia
• 5 Love Languages in practice – physical touch, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and gifts
• Dementia as an erosion of the “emotional glue” that bonds people together
• Skills to foster emotional love connections and attachment bonds

Target Audience

• This seminar benefits multidisciplinary professionals who care for persons living with dementia and their family care partners. This includes:
  • Nurses
  • Nurse Practitioners
  • Social Workers
  • Licensed Professional Counselors
  • Psychologists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Physical Therapists
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Speech-Language Therapists
  • Recreational Therapists
  • Nursing Home/Senior Living Administrators
  • Activity Directors
  • Physician Assistants
  • Certified Nursing Assistants
  • Anyone desiring next-level skills to proactively assess and intervene as challenging behaviors present

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