Consciously Building Community for People with Dementia

What does that mean? In the  late 1980s, Tom Kitwood began talking about person-centered dementia care, drawing on Carl Rogers' idea that each person has the capacity and desire for personal growth and change. I think of it as, given the right nutrients, people grow, just as grass grows. Eventually, the concept in dementia care expanded to relationship-centered care. I have broadened that concept yet again with the idea of 'creating the village' together. Many of us don't live in such a community, but certainly the continuum of care communities that are opening up all around the country speak to the need for these communities for older adults. But how do we create such a community for people living with dementia who may not understand that concept?

I create a conscious community every time I meet with people with dementia - through intention, ritual, and dance. Intention informs everything that follows. Ritual sets the time and space apart as special - sacred, if you will. Dance builds on nonverbal communication, so that even if people can not understand words, they can understand nonverbal communication. After all, that is our first language - for every single one of us. That allows us to begin our time together operating from the basic common denominator, a way of interacting that most everyone understands.

I attempt to create that conscious community in every training that I lead as well. I am working from another basic common denominator, that we all need to understand what it means to belong from the inside.

I highly recommend Memory Bridge, which offers biweekly webinars expanding upon these concepts. https://www.memorybridge.org/shop/ . Today's topic is Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides, by Geoffrey L. Cohen

I am extending the Earlybird Deadline for the June 1 and 2 Bringing Dance to People with Dementia training in Dedham, MA to May 22. If past trainings are any indication, it should be extraordinary. Building conscious community together and bringing it to people with dementia in dance groups is pretty mind-blowing.

Learn how to bring excellence to older adults and people with dementia, including those who are nonverbal. June 1 and 2 in Dedham, MA. Find out more here. 

You can click here to register.