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For Immediate Release A SOLUTION FOR DEMENTIA CAREGIVERS (Baltimore, MD)––Communication and behavior difficulties are among the most challenging aspects of caring for older adults with dementia. Family members and friends dealing with these issues often experience intense frustration and hopelessness. Elder caregivers around the world have found a solution to these problems with the Validation approach, a proven method for improving communication and interactions with older adults with dementia. This method, used by professionals for decades, is now offered to family members and friends in Validation Techniques for Dementia Care: The Family Guide to Improving Communication (Health Professions Press, 2008). Pioneered more than 30 years ago by social worker Naomi Feil, the Validation approach changes the way a person relates to confused or disoriented older adults. With the guidance in Validation Techniques for Dementia Care, caregivers learn to “walk beside” the older adult in his or her final life stage. Author Vicki de Klerk-Rubin, European Manager of the Validation Training Institute, explains, “Validation teaches family members how to enter the reality of the person receiving care and validate his or her expressed feelings and needs, even when behavior is hard to understand.” Difficult situations, such as a husband not recognizing his wife or an older adult in a long-term care facility constantly asking to return home, can be defused with caring, empathic techniques like open questioning, rephrasing, anchored touch, and mirroring. “As a Validation Teacher for 8 years, a [long-term care] administrator for 18 years, and someone who practices these techniques and leads groups, I can testify that the Validation paradigm is effective, practical, and has a transformative impact,” says Scott Averill, CEO of Brookside Retirement Community in Overbrook, Kansas. Using Validation’s innovative techniques, families will experience improved communication and more meaningful interactions, resulting in enhanced relationships in the final months or years of an older adult’s life. This comprehensive, easy-to-understand book comes at an opportune time for the growing numbers of elder caregivers. More than 5 million Americans are currently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and this number is only expected to grow as the population ages. “This book gives family members, friends, and others the keys to unlock the doors to continued relationships and opportunities for positive interactions with loved ones,” says Harvey L. Sterns, Ph.D., Director of the Institute for Life-Span Development and Gerontology at The University of Akron. Former caregiver and eldercare advocate Jacqueline Marcell agrees, “How I wish I’d had this book when I was caring for my parents … how much easier it would have been and how much time and heartache it would have saved.” ### Validation Techniques for Dementia Care Review copies of Validation Techniques for Dementia Care are available upon request. For more information, contact Amy Perkins (Phone: 410-337-9585, Fax: 410-337-8539, aperkins@healthpropress.com). About Health Professions Press Founded in 1990, Health Professions Press is a publisher of high-quality educational resources for professionals in the fields of aging, long-term care, and health services administration. An independent company, Health Professions Press is located in Baltimore, Maryland. Please visit www.healthpropress.com for more information.
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