Understanding and Preventing Harmful Interactions Between Residents with Dementia

by Eilon Caspi

Overview

Professional care providers can learn ways to avoid one of the most challenging and costly problems to occur in care settings: Interactions between residents that lead to serious harm. Most of these episodes are preventable. Understanding what may provoke a person with dementia to respond in a physically or verbally harmful manner is the key to prevention and mitigation.

This book provides the first care standard for the field, presenting practical tools and instruction on how to identify contributing factors, causes, unmet needs, and triggers that commonly lead to serious distress or injury, sometimes even death. Emphasizing compassionate, person-directed care practices, author Eilon Caspi describes strategies for preventing and de-escalating situations before, during, and after harmful resident-to-resident interactions. Dozens of real-life examples are included. Based on extensive research and proven behavioral analysis, this valuable resource:

• Identifies dozens of factors that contribute to harmful interactions

• Describes which factors can be modified and which cannot, and how to work with them either way

• Creates opportunities to improve resident and staff well-being and safety

• Delivers a wealth of useful intervention tools and strategies

• Provides access to downloadable assessment and planning tools with detailed instructions on how to use them

This critical resource will inform training programs and daily practice for direct care staff, interdisciplinary care teams, and long-term care administrators. The recommended approaches will help providers meet federal nursing home regulations, avoid unnecessary legal liabilities, and enjoy cost savings from reduced resident-to-resident incidents. A safer and more harmonious experience can be achieved for all who live or work in care homes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938870538
Publisher:	Health Professions Press
Publication date:	11/05/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	308
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	7 Years

About the Author

Eilon Caspi, Ph.D., is a gerontologist and dementia behavior specialist. He is the founder and director of Dementia Behavior Consulting LLC and a founding member, advisor, and board member of Elder Voice Family Advocates. He currently works as an assistant research professor at the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy at the University of Connecticut. He serves as a board member of the Long Term Care Community Coalition (NYC). He has worked his entire adult life in the aging field, serving in various roles including social worker, consultant, applied researcher, educator, author, volunteer, and elder care advocate.

Table of Contents

About the Author
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction

SECTION I. SPECTRUM OF DHRRIS AND HOW TO APPROACH THEM

1. Spectrum and Consequences
2. Principles for Approaching DHRRIs

SECTION II. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS, CAUSES, AND TRIGGERS

1. Resident’s History and Background Factors
2. Situational Causes and Triggers
3. Factors in the Physical Environment
4. Factors Related to Care Partners

SECTION III. PREVENTION AND DE-ESCALATION STRATEGIES

1. Procedures and Strategies at the Organizational Level
2. Proactive Measures
3. Immediate Strategies During Episodes
4. Post-Episode Strategies

APPENDIX
A. Assessment Tools and Processes for Prevention of DHRRIs

Index

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Crystal L Plank, RN, BSN, RAC-CTA, IP (University of Missouri)
Description: This book explores understanding and preventing harmful interactions between residents with dementia. It presents different aspects residents may experience and how to identify factors from a variety of perspectives. It discusses contributing factors such as resident history, causes, triggers, and caregivers. It also looks at de-escalation strategies. It is a great resource for caregivers in any setting.
Purpose: The purpose of this book is to prevent resident-to-resident potential for harming each other. It is to assist caregivers or readers with suggestions and strategies in preventing dementia residents from harming each other. De-escalation strategies and proactive measures are two areas that are the most integrating aspects of the book. Caregivers who are caring for residents with dementia will benefit from this resource.
Audience: Caregivers who are caring for residents with dementia, regardless of if they are a "lay" person or a trained caregiver, will benefit from this book. This is an outstanding resource to use as an educational tool for frontline caregivers and those working with dementia residents especially if they have behaviors that may impact other residents with or without dementia.
Features: The book has multiple downloadable resources that will benefit readers with additional screening tools as well as prevention planning resources. The book has an appropriate number of tables to help readers understand and categorize different factors. The cover of the book is eye catching as it relates to the content of the book also.
Assessment: This book is a vital informational and educational tool written in the recent time. It is a resource that will benefit any caregiver in any setting that cares for residents living with dementia. It is especially beneficial for those caregivers working on dementia units within nursing homes or other facilities.

Doody's Review Service

An important book for anyone concerned about quality of life, safety, and dignity for individuals living with dementia. Dr. Caspi’s knowledge, empathy, and wisdom come through in every chapter.

Richard J. Mollot

Caspi illuminates a well-known but, until now, a largely ignored phenomenon of distressing and harmful resident-to-resident interactions (DHRRI) among persons with dementia in long-term care homes. Contributing to keeping this phenomenon invisible is that the CMS database has yet to implement a GAO recommendation that such incidents be tracked and submitted by state survey agencies. At the heart of Caspi’s book is the message of person-directed practice. He cautions us that words are powerful and capable of perpetuating harmful beliefs about persons with dementia that will cause some direct care providers to accept negative interactions rather than try to de-escalate through listening, drawing on pearls from the past, and building trust. His 12 principles for approaching DHRRIs provides a framework for direct care providers to better understand the triggers of DHRRI and strategies to prevent or de-escalate harmful interactions. Add this book to your toolkit and appreciate that in better management of negative interactions, positive interactions of human expression will emerge.

Nina M. Silverstein

This book exposes the hidden public health problems of resident-to-resident aggression in long-term care homes. Had I access to this information, my husband might still be alive. The book should be required reading for those in the healthcare industry who are determined to end this prevalent and harmful form of elder neglect in nursing homes and assisted living residences.

Theresa Piccolo

Dr. Caspi brings compassion and clarity to the critical issue of harmful interactions between residents with dementia living in long term care homes. His evidence-informed strategies provide practical value for families and care providers who struggle to address and prevent these deeply concerning events.

Mary Schulz

Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, Understanding and Preventing Harmful Interactions Between Residents with Dementia is an ideal and seminal instruction manual and guide that will be of immense value to anyone having to care for patients and residents of sheltered care facilities for those suffering from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format, [this book] is an essential and core addition to professional, sheltered care facilities, college, and university library Long Term Nursing, Geriatrics, and Gerontology collections and supplemental studies curriculum syllabus.

Midwest Book Review