“One Rule Them All” is a short & practical roadmap for easier dementia care - making your work easier!
It’s also a practical tool for giving more Joy & Happiness to people who are lost in dementia fog and for reducing unrest and problem behaviour.
The Guide has 2 Rules and 3 Tools and One Rule Them All - LOVE ❤
Rule 1 – The person with dementia is your Care Guide
We are all unique and different, we have different taste in food, clothes, music, films…….this does not change when a person gets dementia.
People with dementia stay unique and keep their own preferences, likes and dislikes. So the only person who knows what a person with dementia likes or dislikes, is the person with dementia themselves.
Therefore ask the person or find out, by trial & error, what the person with dementia likes or dislikes.
Doing this: You reduce unrest and agitation, problem behaviour and your care actions will run Better & Easier.
Wanna know what this means for a person with dementia? Step in a cold bath, step in a warm bath.
Now you feel what it does and means to a person with dementia when you use him as your Care Guide?
Don’t forget your own benefits: Lesser unrest, lesser problem behaviour, care actions run smoother.
Rule 2 – Everything you do for a person with dementia comes back to you.
When a person with dementia feels he is treated with respect and seen as a person they will cooporate more and better with you. Making your work easier, improving your job satisfaction and your mood.
Your better mood is immediately picked up by the person with dementia and again the person with dementia will cooperate more & better, which makes you even more happier.
The Care Snowball is rolling and becomes bigger and bigger.
So everything you do for a person with dementia comes back to you, even when you think “it cost me more time”. In the long run it will save you time and saves you from a burn out.
At the same time you are spreading Joy & Happiness into the dementia world where “The little Things Are The Big Things”.
Never, never forget that a wink – a smile – a hand – a hug means the world to people with dementia.
The Three Tools:
1- You
2 - Music
3- Surrounding
Plus extra Fabulous Stuff
- Bring in the family
- Dementia in hospital
- Mirror neurons aid
- And the one rule which Rules Them All – LOVE
Ignar’s dementia Guide “One Rule Them All” includes also Ignar’s dementia brigade.
Why a brigade? Because you need Family & Volunteers to help you, we need each other to create a dementia care where you will be happy with and where people with dementia feel safe, at home and also be happy with.
Ignar’s dementia guide is a guide for you. For all the hard working nurses and care workers but also a guide for the family and volunteers as it contains practical tools where everyone can participate with.
So join Ignar’s dementia brigade and let’s make dementia care fabulous!
Practical example
I heard this story at a nursing congress and it contains all the key aspects of Ignar’s dementia guide.
In a care home in Norway, lived a man from Pakistan who had parkinson & dementia. In the morning this man was so stiff that it was a lot of work for the nursing to get him out of bed, undress, shower, wash and dress him up.
But on a sunny Norway day there was a new nurse. A nurse from Pakistan who did not start with taking this man directly out of bed. No she started the care with singing a Pakistani song. During the singing she took the man out of bed and made a little dance with him.
The singing and the dancing did not last more than 5 minutes !
After that 5 minutes, the man was so flexible that undressing, showering, washing and the dressing was done in half the time!
I don’t have to tell you that this way of caring was of course more pleasant for this man, and that this way of caring is much easier & more pleasant for the nursing and care staff.
Everybody can do this, everybody has a voice and everybody can make a little dance. It costs nothing, brings up a lot, without side effects 😊 Everything from Ignar’s dementia Guide is found in this practical example.
By choosing a Pakistani song the nurse made the man her music guide. Rule 1 – The person with dementia is your care guide.
Taking the time for a song & a dance she could do the morning care in half the time. Rule 2 – Everything you do for a person with dementia comes back to you.
The nurse saw a man from Pakistan and she realized that Parkinsons and dementia made the morning ritual difficult. Her empathy was picked up by this man. Tool 1- You.
Through the singing the nurse made use of the power of music, activating the man’s whole brain. Tool 2 – Music
By choosing a song of this man’s country of birth she created a Pakistan atmosphere and surrounding for him. Tool 3 – Surrounding the Friends & Family of this man can bring in the right songs and give information about the man’s youth. Bringing in the family. The song and the dance can be done everywhere, in a hospital, care home or at home by a care giver.
By dancing opposite each other the nurse activated the mirror neurons, whereby the mans movements he couldn't make alone. Mirror neurons aid Love for her job and love for this man made her Singing & Dancing.
One Rule Them all LOVE ❤
Love made the world go round
Love made care snow balls rolling
Love makes dementia care fabulous