1. Virtual Dementia Tour Wrap Up:
Walking in the Shoes of Those with Dementia
Melora Jackson, MS, CMHT, CDP
Clinical Manager, Second Wind Dreams

2. Describe Your Experience
How did you feel?
What frustrated you the most?
What was your quality of life like?

3. The VDT Brain Frontal Lobe Parietal Lobe Limbic System Occipital Lobe
Forgetting tasks
“Where am I supposed to be?” “What am I supposed to do?”
Parietal Lobe
Removed ability to get tactile information
“I can’t pick the utensils up and put them in the right place.”
Hip
Trunk
Arm
Fingers
Face
Leg
Hand
Hand
Speech
Limbic System
Tearful
Agitated
“I give up.”
Language
Hearing
Smell
Occipital Lobe
“I can’t see anything.“
“Are these the pants?”
“Where do I put this?”
Vision
Emotions
Posture
Balance
Coordination
Left Hemisphere
Immobile
Poor reasoning
(Only work in the immediate surroundings)
Right Hemisphere
No abstract use of the environment
“There wasn’t a sweater in there.”
A good explanation of this slide in the manual starting on page 41. The slide gives examples of what happens in the VDT to a participant. You can use specific areas of the brain to discuss the class responses during the tour.
Cerebral Cortex
Multi level tasks with secondary process thinking
Temporal Lobe
Audio confusion Interference with memory Startle response
“I can’t understand what you just told me.”

4. What Is Normal Dementia
Wandering
Agitation
Inability to Process Information
Poor Memory

5. Components
Shoe Inserts
Gloves
Glasses
Headphones
Environment

6. Reticular Activating System & Amygdala
RAS
Controls sleeping, waking and attention.
Filters and screens out junk.
Allows you to focus.
Allows you to perceive a threat.
AMD
Memory
Decision-making
Emotional Responses

7. Behavior Observations
Negative Statements
Mumbling
Requests for Help
Interaction
Strange Behavior
Agitation
Shadowing
Wandering
Hoarding
Rummaging
Repetitive Behavior
Reinforcement
Gave Up

8. Michael Speaks About
Noise and Focus

9. Michael on Noise and Focus
Sensitivity to sound
Foreign Language
Intermixed
Can’t filter
Distraction
Can’t recover
Sounds mixed together. Can’t focus. If we ask a person withy dementia to eat and there is too much going on….
Sounds are agitating. Hydraulic on doors. Chairs being moved.

10. Michael Speaks About
Visual Perception

11. Michael on Visual Input
Pupil reaction time
The walls
Seeing double
Depth Perception
Peripheral Vision
Walls, different colors at the corners, peripheral vision ( Alz. Window)

12. If normal people exhibit behavior that mimics dementia during the VDT, why can’t behavior exhibited by people with dementia be normal for them?
Without empathy we will never and in order to gain empathy we are required to imagine ourselves as someone else.

13. What would have helped you during the tour?
Connecting to a person with dementia requires that we take the first step. We don’t wait for the smile, we smile first. We don’t wait for the welcome, we welcome first. We don’t expect a response, we fill the gap. We don’t wait for the hug, we hug first.

14. General Recommendations
Give Control Back
Guarantee Success
Make Things as Familiar as Possible
Make Concrete (Visual) Choices Available
Create Calm and Safety
Encourage/Reassure Frequently
Keep Them Busy – Things to Get Into
Take Cues from Them and Adjust Accordingly
Adjust Time Expectations

15. How we walk with the broken speaks louder than how we sit with the great.
-Bill Bennot
Read the close. Three things….