Training Outline
Colliding Challenges: The Dual Impact of Dementia and Dysphagia
- What Is Dementia Really Doing to the Brain & Body?
- Cognitive, Physical & Sensory changes
- Changes in swallowing
- From Income to Community: Social Determinants Impacting Aging
- Frailty and Sarcopenia
- Swallowing the Facts: How Common Is Dysphagia in Dementia
- Cognitive Reserve, Delirium and Dementia
- What Is a Cognitive Reserve Model and why is it important?
- Dementia Types and What They Mean for your Plan of Care:
- Alzheimer s disease
- Lewy Body Dementia
- Vascular Dementia
- Fronto-temporal dementias
Understanding the Swallowing Process
- Age-related changes in sensory and motor function
- Neuropathological effects on swallowing
- Behavioral, sensory, and preliminary motor acts in preparation for swallowing
Factors Affecting Swallowing in Dementia
- Improving Motor Function to Makes Meals Less Miserable
- How to skillfully turn the table when posture, weakness, and tremors subtly disrupt eating patterns, schedules, and success
- What To Do When the Senses Slip?
- Rebuild your clients’ ability and desire to eat when taste, temperature, or hunger signals fade
- Mealtime Mayhem: Navigating Environmental Sabotage
- Noise, lights, temperatures, and distractions—mealtime’s hidden disruptors and what you can do about them!
- Not Simply A ‘Dry Mouth’
- Learn how oral health issues, dentures, and common medications can create unexpected barriers to comfortable and safe eating
- Dining Déjà Vu: Cognitive Challenges Making Meals Feel Familiar but Foreign
- How to intervene when memory, organization and communication challenges affect food preferences, shape mealtime experiences, and turn into a much bigger problem
Clinical Assessment of Dysphagia in Dementia
- Screening and evaluation tools
- Clinical and Instrumental assessment
- Pulmonary clearance and risk factors for aspiration related illness
Putting a Multi-Modality Plan into Place
- Diet Modification – compensation vs stimulation
- Environmental Modifications – visual, olfactory, auditory, physical changes to facilitate appetite, maintain self-feeding, and improve overall intake
- The role of exercise – when, what, who?
- Helping the Medicine go Down – facilitating medication administration
- Managing Care Resistant Behaviors
- Creative solutions to maintain the appearance of a normal diet while altering textures
- Adaptive Equipment and strategies for preservation of enjoyment of food and aiding independence
- Caregiver training and strategies for managing meal-related behaviors
Ethical Considerations and Person-Centered Care
- Tube Feeding: Yay or Nay?
- Balancing safety with quality of life
- End of Life Considerations: Addressing depression and appetite loss
Case Studies and Practical Application
- Real-world examples of dysphagia management in dementia care
- Interactive problem-solving exercises
- Multidisciplinary collaboration for comprehensive patient care
Mastering Preparedness for Dementia & Dysphagia Care
- Key takeaways and best practices
- Resources for ongoing education and professional development
Objectives
- Differentiate stages of degenerative change and examine the stages of normal swallowing.
- Examine the prevalence and progression of dysphagia, as related to function, in dementia patients.
- Identify key elements necessary for the development of a comprehensive dysphagia evaluation including physical, cognitive, and sensory complications that can affect eating and drinking.
- Examine risk factors for development of aspiration related illness in individuals with dementia.
- Develop modified feeding interventions through each stage of dementia to improve patient level of functioning and performance with meal time related activities.
- Analyze current evidence-based case studies for dysphagia and applicable treatment interventions.
- Identify ethical considerations in end of life care for patients with dementia and their caregivers.
