I recently wrote an article for the WAVE on the potential value of sharing personal pictures on your smartphone, for developing relationships and engaging patients with dementia, prior to providing medication and care plan directed care.
This article was written in the context of a conference call as a member of the California Partnership to Improve Dementia Care. On that call I shared my experience with picture talk. One of the participants, Karen Schindler, a VP for quality improvement initiatives with Skilled Health Care, then shared her prior work on a “Passport Project” to help staff know more about their resident’s past life, prior to passing meds or delivering care plan directed care.
The attached “Passport to Better Care” reported in 2014, is still a good read and may be worth implementing in you facility for the care of some of you residents with dementia. In this passport, meaningful personal pictures from a resident’s past helped care providers develop closer relationships with their patients that then promoted acceptance of the team's care plan. In their experience, this resulted in residents with much less distress, improved quality of life, and less antipsychotic use.
This may be another way we affirm that “less medication may mean more for our patients”.
Link to article:
http://www.providermagazine.com/archives/2014_Archives/Pages/0814/A-Passport-To-Better-Care.aspx