You may have read about our friend Sally, who passed away on July 31st of this year. She lived alone in her own home, until the final four days of her life, while she was actively dying. She had dementia and was fiercely independent. Our team had the privilege of helping her live life her way, and die her way. She experienced a sense of autonomy over her own life, even when what she really had was 24/7 supervision and many hours of DAWN Dementia-Specialist care and companionship.
It only worked because we knew how to use the DAWN Method, and we are so grateful that it worked because it helped us give her such personal gifts.
Time and time again, the DAWN (Dementia and Alzheimer’s Well-being Network) Method works. I have analyzed it with my evidence-based professional eyes and mind, and there is not one part of the method that does not work.
Here’s why:
*The seven tools of the DAWN Method help us meet the unique emotional needs of people living with dementia, people who have cognitive skills that are changing.
*When emotional needs are met, people living with dementia have far fewer reasons to have a response, what society labels a “behavior.”
*When we understand, then, how to meet the unique emotional needs of those living with dementia, we are reducing and preventing “behaviors” so that we are not forever responding to “behaviors.”
*This all works because the DAWN Method teaches us how to manage the environment in a way that becomes dementia-supportive. This dementia-supportive environment helps people with dementia feel safe and secure and continue to enjoy well-being…until they breathe their last breath.
*It is a strength-based approach because we focus on what cognitive skills folks continue to have, all the while understanding, supporting, and accepting the skills they are losing.
*The DAWN Method helps us understand anosognosia, which is a game-changer in our approach to dementia. Understanding anosognosia and how it necessarily impacts our approach is an important contributor to success, or failure, in dementia care.
My team and I skillfully use what we have learned through the DAWN Method daily in our work in DAWN Dementia-Specialist home care. And in the process of bringing the right kind of care to others, we, too, receive the gifts of joy, hope, meaning, success, and well-being.
Grateful,
Jill
