My name is Maria Hedman Holmblad and I have been a certified Validation teacher since 2016.
I came into contact with the Validation Method in the late 1990s, when several of us at my workplace visited the day care center Villa Cederschiöld at Ersta in Stockholm. There, they had staff who were validation workers. They told us that they used the reminiscence method to arouse emotions and used the validation method to deal with the emotions that came up. This made me very curious. At the time, I was working as a nurse on a ward where people with dementia with behavioral and psychological symptoms were allowed to move in.
We came into contact with the teacher Rita Schwarz and applied for an EU grant to be able to take the worker course. We had enormous support from our Head of Unit and already during the training we worked on developing many different parts of the care in the ward. This led to both us and relatives noticing a huge difference in the people living in the ward. We quickly became a unit where we went from using the most neuroleptics in healthcare to using the least in our municipality. At that time, I was convinced that all units in Sweden have to know about Validation, and I wanted to become a teacher in Validation, to help ensure that all homes for people with dementia would know about it.
More care homes became interested in the Validation method and we started a project where more people could go Level 1 courses. I was the project manager and Rita Schwarz was the teacher. We started several level 1 courses where healthcare personnel from nearby municipalities also participated. We also had some collaboration with Ersta, which was the AVO in Sweden. In 2012, Karlskoga Municipality also became an AVO. We invested heavily in developing the method. I and some others Validation Workers visited others facilities and talked about our work based on the method. We also had exhibitions about the method at various conferences. We invited Naomi Feil to a workshop. She was in Stockholm twice and in Karlskoga twice between 2010 and 2013, which contributed to many people being interested in our Level 1 courses.
AVO at Ersta was established in 2013 (I believe) and in 2017 in Karlskoga, due to the Executive Director being replaced. The new Executive Director did not understand the power of the Validation Method. Since we also received National Guidelines in Sweden that did not recommend reminiscence or the Validation Method, due to a lack of evidence for the methods, the new Executive Directors did not think we should continue to spend time and energy on the method.
Today, I am the only active teacher in Sweden and I still believe that the Validation Method is the best method available in the care of people with dementia. Since 2019, I have a company to spread the Validation Method, alongside my work as a nurse working with dementia investigation.
In recent years, I have promoted validation training and implementation in Sweden in various ways:
- I spread a lot of information about the method via social media. I also have newsletters that are sent out every week. In those letters, I answer questions I receive. A lot of focus is on explaining the difference between diverting and validating the person who has dementia. In Sweden, many people who educate in dementia care talks about diverting. Some believe that they are validating the person when they divert.
- Webinars. Arranged to introduce the validation method to different target groups, relatives and professionals in institutions. Hundreds of people have participated in these webinars.
- I have a few Workshops for staff in the care of people with dementia every year. The workshops aim to familiarize students with the validation method and give them tips on how they can develop their work
- I have translated and published the book V/F Validation: The Feil Method, How to Help Disoriented Old-Old
Today, there is no coordination with the people who is Validation Workers. Many of those who have taken the courses have retired. It has been difficult to organize Level 1 courses in Sweden. The interest has not been great enough. I hope to be able to organize one in 2026