Dementia Interpreter®
Course Content
- Course Introduction
- Become a Dementia Interpreter®
- Module 1 - Definitions
- Module 2 - Communication
- Module 3 - Attitude
- Module 4 - Words and Terms
- Module 5 - Making Changes
- Module 6 - Changing Circumstances
- Module 7 - Body Language
- Module 8 - Experiential Training Introduction
- Module 9 - Changes Over Time
- Module 10 - Questions
- Experiential Training - Part 1
- Experiential Training - Part 2
- Experiential Training - Part 3
- Experiential Training - Part 4
- Experiential Training - Part 5
- Summary
Experiential Training - Part 3
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So are you all ready for the next activity? Yes. Yes. Yes. You might regret saying that, Dennis. So our next activity, we have impaired your speech, we are now going to impair your vision. So we talked earlier on about aphasia and that is why we get you guys to wear the mouthpieces. Impairing your vision; we know a lot of people living with dementia are going to have something that affects their vision. It could just be general age related eye conditions, lenses getting thicker. It could be glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, lots and lots and lots of things that are going on. So we have got a bit of equipment we are going to use to simulate some of those conditions. Now, Dennis, you very, very kindly volunteered to be our person in care, so you are going to get the extra bits of equipment this time. So you have already got your mouthpiece from before. We have got a lovely pair of goggles for you to wear. And you do not have to worry about putting them on now. You can open them up, get them ready. This activity is going to be very, very similar to the first one. So we are going to give Dennis a statement to read out and you two guys are going to try and understand and repeat back to Dennis what he is saying. So I am going to give you your statement. Obviously with those goggles, it is going to be quite hard to read the statement, so it is probably a good idea to read it first. Try and remember it. You would be amazed at the amount of people that try and read it with the goggles on. So do not show the guys. I do have another card for you two as well. So you can have a little look at this and read it. Do not show anyone your cards. And then Dennis, have you remembered your statement? I think so. You think so? That is the safe answer. I like that. If you want to pop your goggles on, probably best if you take your glasses off just to make it nice and comfortable. And then while you are doing that, I am just going to ask you guys if you can just move around a little bit just more so you are more in front of Dennis. So in a minute, I am going to let you guys know when we are going. Dennis can start reading that statement. As soon as Dennis starts reading out his statement, I would like you two guys to do what is written on your cards. So Dennis, before you read that out, can you pop your mouthpiece back in for us? Yes. And then when you are ready, you can start communicating your statement.. You guys getting anything? No. No.. Still not understanding. Still nothing?. No. No.. Is it about a horse?.. Pride?. Ponies.. Ponies, pride.. Ponies, pride.. Ponies pride.... Ponies pride themselves on.... On jumping?. Fence.. Fence. Ponies pride themselves on jumping every fence.. That... Do you know what? Should we give him that, I think? You can stop there, Dennis. Do you want to take your equipment off for me? So Dennis, how did you feel when you were trying to communicate your sentence there? Start off with just talking normally and after a while, I was thinking, "Come on, you two, put a bit of effort." And then it was getting a bit disorienting. And them walking around in circles, I do not know what that was all about. Well, I was going to ask you about that. So obviously, you would have noticed the guys got up and started to walk around. So how did that make you feel? Sounds like you were a little bit... I was a bit perplexed. What are you doing? Really. Apart from that, I was so concentrated on trying to communicate to them, that I could not think any else. And then I thought, "Well, if they are not listening to me, maybe I have got to try to communicate in a different way." So I made dodgy horse noises. It was a very good horse noise, I thought. You guys picked up on that straight away. That was what we then picked up on. So kind of following on from what we talked about earlier on, you started to use other forms of communication. That is right. Could you make that horse noise one more time? Very, very good horse noise. You started to use gestures and the noises to try and communicate. Now, I do not know why the guys got up and started walking around. I did not ask them to do that. They clearly just do not like you very much. Obviously, you guys on your cards, it said to get up and start to walk around. And Dennis, it made you think, "What is going on?" What are you doing? "Why are you doing that?" I am guessing you two would not normally get up and walk around when someone is communicating to you, no? No. No. No? So you have both worked in care, yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever had a conversation with someone where you have been moving about? Yeah. Probably. Actually, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have. Yeah. Yeah. I think every single one of us has probably done this. Whether you work in care and you are supporting people living with dementia, whether you are living at home supporting somebody living with dementia, or whether you are just a human being. We all do this all the time. The wife might shout, the husband might shout. Having a conversation, you are busy doing your own end or getting the tea ready. We do this all the time. The problem is, if you have got somebody who has communication barriers and we are walking around, all that extra effort it is taking you to communicate and we are giving off that we do not care. We are not listening to you. And you added confusion that you were talking about. That is right, yes. We mention this all the time. They say it is a very, very basic thing when it comes to communicating. But if you have got someone who is trying to communicate with you, we should be sitting down, eye level, giving that person our attention, really trying to listen. But we do not do it. We just do not, because we do not think about it. Now, I have been round and done this training for hundreds and hundreds of different people and the response I normally get when I say this statement, you guys will know the answer to it. So why don't you sit down and pay attention to someone when they are trying to communicate to you? What do you think the response I get to that is generally? We are too busy? Do not have time. That is the answer that we always get. I do not have time to do it because I have got all these other things that I am doing. We are all guilty, all guilty of saying that at some point in our lives. I do not have time. But we have just experienced there. Dennis has just experienced there. Emotionally, if we cannot give somebody that time, it is confusing, it is isolating, because you can... You are trying to communicate and no one is paying attention to you. It is a horrible, horrible thing and a horrible situation to put people in. Now, I am not going to stand here and preach and say I am perfect and I have never done this. We have all done it. I do not have time, so I am going to do me other jobs while I am trying to communicate with someone. I think that argument is flawed, it is completely flawed, for two reasons. So if we are supporting somebody living with dementia and they are trying to communicate with us, none of us would want to make them feel how Dennis felt there. None of us would want to add confusion or make someone feel frustrated or isolated. And by not giving them the attention, we now know that that is how we might make them feel. So straightaway, that argument for "I do not have time," that is gone. That is gone, because I do not want to make somebody feel worse. The bigger reason why I do not think this, "I do not have time" argument is valid, let us say that situation, let us say that you guys had not been able to pick up on what Dennis was saying. These guys then walk off. What might you do? I may find all ways to communicate, maybe getting aggressive. There we go. to come back to me. Exactly. So communicate I am frustrated, I need you to come back, I need your attention. So you might show that through frustration, aggression. And one of the first things I was told about dementia when I started working at home was they are aggressive, which we all know is rubbish. There is a reason why somebody might be getting a little bit frustrated, because they have been ignored. I then have to go back and deal with that behaviour, which could take half an hour. It could take the rest of the day. We mentioned earlier on as well, somebody living with dementia, they might not always remember our name, but they will tend to remember how we have made them feel. So not only have I had given myself an extra four hours work that day, but every single day when that person sees me, in the back of their brain, they are going to have that memory ingrained there. Not sure what you have done, but you have done something to me. So rather than spending two minutes initially to sort it out, we have now caused ourselves countless hours of extra work trying to deal with that situation. And this is why the whole "I do not have time" argument just does not add up. We spend that time initially, we save so much time in the long run and people are happier.
In this video we continue to look at the experiential training that is completed by care staff. We have impaired their speech, and in the next activity we impair their vision.