Organization & Introduction

  • Welcome Corina! Thank you for introducing yourself and giving us little background. The Validation Method is such a powerful method of communication and the techniques are effective if practiced routinely. This course will certainly touch on practical skills that can be used with your mum.
    I hope you and your mum are doing well! Krissy

  • Hi, My name is Corina and I live in Geelong in Australia in the state of Victoria. I have been a speech therapist for the past 16 years as well as other work but I am now semi retired. My mother, is 88 years of age and was diagnosed with Alzheimers dementia 3 years ago. Last year was my mothers first year in an aged care facility. Mum was no longer safe to be left supported at home. My mum refuses to accept she has difficulties with her memory or ability to care for herself. In our country Validation techniques are not taught and staff are trained in person centred care methods. As a result I find staff are frequently under prepared for knowing how they can respond to better support people who have dementia.
    I have completed some other Validation online courses and have read some of Naomi Feils books so was keen to sign up for this training as it is more accessible being online.
    I note the time periods of previous posts though so hope it is still running?

  • Hello everyone and I apologize for being a day late. We were celebrating my 3rd grandchild’s first birthday yesterday in the mountains and I wasn’t able to get an internet connection.

    My 83 year old mother was diagnosed at 78 with Alzheimers and 3 years ago my 63 year old sister-in-law was also diagnosed with Alzheimers. Both my father and brother are their caretakers and we 5 sisters do all we can to help them both but they are on the east coast so I must fly out there and with the pandemic I haven’t been able to do so since early March. I’m trying to learn as much as I can so that I can support them and my sisters from afar.

  • My name’s Lani (rhymes w/ Bonnie). I live in Colorado Springs. By default, I accompanied my mother, step-mother and two elder friends through their years living w/ vascular dementia or hepatic encephalopathy. Now preparing for increasing involvement with my 86-year-old father, who lives in CA. No diagnosis yet. However, Dad realizes he’s having challenges with short/long term memory and perhaps focus.

  • Hi, I’m Roberta. My 93-year-old dad has been having a declining memory for years and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s just over a year ago. I moved him and my mom to an independent living facility near me last January and am in charge of all of their stuff. I was interested to read the difference between DAT and DAT with early Alzheimer’s onset. Dad certainly seems to fit the former and it gave me a little hope that his decline may not be quite what I expected. Looking forward to better ways to encourage him and would like to help my mom communicate better with him as well.

  • Hello, Cecily and Tina. Welcome to the course!

    Thank you for sharing below. I look forward to meeting you both on the Zoom meeting next week. ~Heather

  • Hi all! I’m Tina.. I live in Brighton with my husband who has been diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimers. I signed up for this class so I could get a better understanding of how quickly this disease has progressed and how to deal with the many changes we have been experiencing in the last couple years.

  • Hi! I am Cecily. I live in Westminster with my mom. Mom has dementia, but she still has a lot of life left in her. I came home from the mission field to be with her after my dad passed away last year. I don’t feel like I do a very good job of being patient with her and am pretty disappointed in myself.
    I am sorry we won’t all get to meet in person. I was looking forward to that! But, since we all live in CO, maybe someday we can meet!

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