The Shift That Changes Dementia Care Forever with Beth Nolan, PhD

Dementia care is evolving, and understanding the brain is the key.

In this episode of Advice From Your Advocates, elder law attorney Bob Mannor sits down with Beth Nolan, PhD, Chief Public Health Officer for Teepa Snow’s Positive Approach to Care, to explore a powerful new way to support people living with dementia.

The Positive Approach to Care (PAC) is a brain-based dementia care model developed by internationally recognized dementia educator Teepa Snow. Instead of focusing on behaviors or limitations, this method helps caregivers understand what the brain is experiencing and how to respond with empathy, validation, and skill.

Beth shares how caregivers, families, and professionals can transform everyday interactions with people living with dementia, reduce frustration, and create moments of connection and joy.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The core principles of Teepa Snow’s Positive Approach to Care
• Why dementia does not mean the end of learning or living
• How brain science explains common dementia behaviors
• The difference between protective care vs empowering care
• Why communication must focus on verification and connection
• How environmental design can improve safety, dignity, and independence
• Why caregiver well-being is critical in dementia support

You’ll also hear practical insights on balancing risk, independence, and safety, including why the goal of “zero falls” may not always be realistic or beneficial in dementia care.

Whether you’re a family caregiver, healthcare professional, social worker, or dementia advocate, this conversation will give you tools to better understand the brain, meet human needs, and create more meaningful moments with those living with dementia.

Guest:
Beth Nolan, PhD
Chief Public Health Officer – Positive Approach to Care

Teepa Snow Official Website
https://teepasnow.com

Positive Approach to Care Training
https://teepasnow.com/positive-approach-to-care/

Teepa Snow YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/teepasnow

Connect with Beth
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethnolan

If you care for someone living with dementia, or support those

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to Advice from Your Advocates, a show where we provide elder law advice to professionals who work with the elderly and their families.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome back to Advice from Your Advocates. I'm Bob Manner. I'm a board certified elder law attorney in Michigan. And I'm really excited about our guest today. We have Beth Nolan, a PhD, and Chief Public Health Officer and lead speaker for TPA Snow's Positive Approach to Care. Many of you are very familiar with TPA Snow, and if you're not, you should be, and you'll get a little bit more familiar with her and her organization today. So welcome, Beth. And can you tell us a little bit about yourself and about your organization?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Bob. I appreciate it. So for those of you who don't know who TPA Snow is, yes, that name is weird. It's her actual name, and our organization is called Positive Approach to Care. And at Positive Approach to Care, we work to radically transform the experience of dementia for care partners, for people living with dementia, for professionals, anyone whose life is eventually affected by dementia.

The Myth That Dementia Stops Learning

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yeah. And so tell me a little bit about more of your role and how you got involved in this and kind of your personal journey.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Yeah. So I was working as a professor, a junior professor, and I had this crazy idea that people living with dementia actually could live life and actually could learn. So in the late 90s, there was still this pervasive idea that because the hippocampus, the place of all learning and memory, is dying in dementia, that people living with dementia don't well, they don't learn. They don't actually take in new data. And that didn't seem right. That didn't fit with what we were seeing. So every day I would spend my day in what we called their special care units at that time. And I was watching people who hadn't lived in a special care unit their whole life. They knew exactly what their seat was at lunch. They knew there's a lot of stuff that people knew. People learned the rules really well. And I thought, well, that doesn't make any sense. That seems to be learning that's happening. So that's about all I had. And so I was working to figure out how it is life could be led with dementia. But everyone I worked with in the medical field in public health was still moving towards protecting people and bubble wrapping this world. And I thought, well, I think there's some people here that would like to be bubble wrapped and cared for. And the rest of them are just looking for a little adventure. So that's when I found TIPA. And at that point, when I saw her program, and in essence, we developed curriculum and help people figure out how it is you can get in, get connected, support, and actually work with somebody living with dementia. At that point, when I saw that she was able to transfer this knowledge that she'd figured out, that's when I walked away from my tenure track academic position with one of the best healthcare plans that you've ever seen.

Bubble Wrapping And Family Cocooning

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Wow. That's great. Because they might interact. I'll go to visit some care places and they want to show me around and they want to show me the best thing. And so one of the residents there might come up and start talking to us, and then they try to shoe them away. And I'm like, no, no, let me, you know, let's talk. They might not be able to communicate with me or or even you know speak in a way that I'm able to really understand what they're saying, but they're engaged in the conversation, and that's where they live. I'm going into their home. Yes. Idea of trying to silence them or keep them sort of in a bubble wrap. And then the other trend that I see, and this is more based on family and just the general attitude or cultural understanding, let's put it this way. And I don't blame the families because they don't this is the first time they're going through it. They this is they're trying to wrap their head around it, but sort of what I call the cocooning effect. We're gonna hide mom and dad in the house and never let them leave the house and really have them interact with very few people because we're sort of embarrassed by the situation. And so those are the two trends I see most often, and probably the most destructive.

Validation Using The Wedding Ring Story

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Well, you're absolutely right. And I think that where each one of these camps come from and anything in between that really is coming from a place of caring. And I think that especially if you're listening to this podcast or any of you, it's the reality is that we're trying to do the best we can with what we have. But there has been this pervasive misconception, as well as the reality of when we interact with somebody. When I know this adult previous to dementia should have been able or was able to communicate their needs, meet their needs, make choices that were consistent with choices they made in the past, that begins to change in dementia. And at that point, we superimpose our judgment on what's happening in this person's body and mind, right? So the crazy thing about this is many of the things that we need to do are actually contrary in that moment and feeling. But the reality is if we can pin it on one neurological fact, and that is that I am who I am. I am who I've always been, but I am changing. So when we're thinking about that, and I am truly responding to either internal or external stimuli to the best of my knowledge, the minute we get into a situation where I am thinking I have the right to tell another adult that they can't talk to somebody when they walked into what everyone is telling me is my home, it is actually illogical when we start to lay it out that way. Let's make this more concrete. And thinking about this in care interactions. If I walked up to you right now, absolutely upset, oh my gosh, someone stole my wedding rings. And if you know I don't have dementia to the best of your ability, thinking I have actually lost my rings, you come into this place where you believe me. So when I would do that, if I was a human being that just said, Oh my gosh, I I I I I've lost my wedding rings, what would you say? What would be something you'd say?

SPEAKER_01 6:15

My instinct would be to immediately believe you and want to investigate what to do and how to find them.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

You actually come alongside me. You acknowledge the fact that I have distress, that I'm clearly have just found this out and I'm really freaking out. It's my wedding rings, they're gone. And then you do what you can to help me solve my problem. The implication here is I came to you and told you this because I'm having a little trouble solving my problem, and I think you actually could partner with me. So when the reality is, is that I've got my wedding rings on, and you've even tried saying, Oh, out of curiosity, because this doesn't seem logical, person loving not with dementia. So this isn't your wedding ring. The the ring you have on your hand with the with the diamond and the gold band, that's not your wedding ring? If I come back to you and say, no, it's not, this is a fake, again, this idea that I completely negate another human being's beliefs is just not something we do when it comes to things outside dementia. We will, and here's the piece it is when it doesn't fit for us. So have you ever been asked for the time? Has anybody ever asked you, oh hey, what time is it?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yes, of course.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

So you you answer the time. If I come back 30 seconds later, me, Beth, no dementia, and I say, Hey, what was the time? Especially when we start putting in like husband and wife.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Couples, right? We say, dude, I just told you. We can do it even when there's not dementia. We can negate. And the reality is if I remembered that I had just asked you the time, husband, do you think I'd be asking you again? And you can see how we as couples can get into this place when at that moment you just didn't try to help me meet my needs. Oh, you're looking for the time. I kinda confused because I thought you just asked me and I gave it to you. It's three. Hey, thanks. Wow, that's new data. And I think this is where what makes TIPA's program special is it takes and looks at in that moment what is someone presenting? And I'm just going to use a thing called verification. I'm actually going to reflect what you're saying to me so I can verify what I am taking in, what my sensory motor strip, what my left temporal lobe for hearing and languages, what my own hippocampus is understanding to be the truth, verify that I got what you're saying and then try to meet your needs. Only at that place, when we're actually connected, do I do a little investigation to figure out this is unusual, Bob, because you know, you're an attorney, you're running this podcast, you seem to have your stuff together. This is a little odd, but I'm not allowed to get into that until we're connected enough where we might be honest with each other and actually go to that place where we can be a little bit risky feeling.

Why Being Heard Comes First

SPEAKER_01 9:04

I like how you position this because it's normal human interaction. That is, if we in any other setting, we hopefully have some kind of understanding of it. Anybody who's ever been partnered or have a romantic relationship with somebody knows that there's going to be miscommunications, and and the main issue that can resolve that is the the both parties want to be heard. They want to be felt like the other person at least is hearing them and and acknowledging them. And they might not agree. And so we we kind of understand that there's a whole lot of materials out there and education out there about how to resolve interpersonal conflicts with with your partner, with with employees, with you know, all of this. And then somehow we feel like we can throw that out the window once there's a diagnosis of dementia. And it's the same thing. Yes. Everybody wants to be acknowledged and felt like they were heard first before we can get to the next step.

Brain Change Skills Beyond Dementia

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Absolutely. And I think that's the key thing when you ask, what is TIPA's program? Because there are many dementia education programs out there. And I think the part that really got me excited was the application of the way that humans interact with the world, even when parts of our brain aren't as functional. But the program isn't just for the person living with dementia. It's not necessarily just about learning how it is I interact with those people, but rather how it is I successfully act interact with any one of us who may be experiencing brain change. So think about this way. If in fact I can have, I was on the phone just the other day, a video call with friends, talking to them in Alaska, planning out some training programs, and we were really deep into a debate to figure out how it is going to be funded. That was our focus. And suddenly all three of the people from Alaska froze and looked up and around. And I thought, oh boy, they're all experiencing something I'm not. And then finally, one of them said, guys, we're having an earthquake. And at that point, I know that the earthquake actually takes more precedence, especially Alaskans who are used to earthquakes. When they all stop and pay attention to it, it's got to be decent. It's got to be at least a 4.5 and above. And at that moment, I can set aside this discussion we're having that is actually really pressing and time urgent to acknowledge to figure out, hey, is everyone safe? So in that moment, those people experience some biochemical brain change, not a tissue loss dementia. But at that moment, I went, oh wow. Acknowledge what they're newly telling me and pause because their needs at that moment are to make sure and recognize that they're safe. And I recognize they've got this. So these skills are not just about dementia. Like you said, it's being heard. It's human needs. But how I do it when my expectations of how you should respond in the moment aren't logical with the data I'm taking in, don't match with what I know you are as a person, what you value, what we value, that disconnect causes me to have actual brain change on my part and try to push my agenda. And that's what we're combating. The education is about how it is I say, whoa, do a reassess first with myself. Check that the information I've got is accurate to the best of my ability, but then pause and make another offer that may see about getting us re-fully connected, so then we can get going. That's the key feature. It's not just about people living with dementia, it's about that everything we do in dementia is about us together trying to get things done.

How To Train New Interaction Habits

SPEAKER_01 12:45

How do we get for those that are in the industry as professional caregivers that provide professional caregiving services through various options? Or if we just have a loved one, how do we get from here to there? How do we get from sort of those instincts of, well, I've been married for 50 years and he's been grumpy his whole life. And so this is just a variation of that grumpiness for mom about the wedding ring, things like that. How do we get from here to there? And I know you have an answer because I know you have trainings and things like that that can be done. What's the best way to learn and and kind of re reorient our thinking on this?

SPEAKER_00 13:26

The ultimate answer, you know, it's funny. We talk a lot about the fact that when we talk about successful human interaction, it isn't rocket science. But the reality is it is brain science. And brain science takes practice. So if I want to develop a new habit, a new verbal interaction in the moment, or might maybe even get in the habit of going from mom, what do you want? What what do you need? to actually going, wow, mom, you're looking for something. And here we go with that guessing game again. Because I have to believe first, know that something is possible. So the first place I've got to start with is this idea that I actually need to interact with well, myself first. I need to try this stuff. I need to reach out to you know our YouTube channel and start to practice these skills. But I'm not gonna practice it with the hardest thing first. I don't get to go from little league basketball to NBA. I have to do a lot of drill for skill at that moment. So in PAC, what we do is we introduce these skills. We help people recognize the what and the why behind things and what it is I might be able to try differently. And then you practice in really, really benign situations. And I gotta tell you this when it comes to things like interacting with my mother, I've never been one that can actually correct or shush or give my mother any ideas that are not her own. Yeah. She's a strong, independent woman. And if I think for one moment that's gonna change in dementia, it's gonna be a long potential 30 years. I do have the ability to support engagement if I'm willing to let go of these ideas that suddenly my whole complete job is to do nothing but to keep her safe. That's the part I need community for. That's the hard part.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

And so one resource she mentioned would be the YouTube channel, and that's that's uh that would just be under Tipa Snow, then the YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Yeah, if you simply Google Tipa, T-E-E-P-A snow, the stuff that falls from the sky, she will come up on a variety of venues and and um and avenues. If you are already somebody that has digested thousands of hours of our YouTube content and you're still running into this place where you're already at awareness, you're recognizing this is a great idea, but you're still talking about things like complex care challenges or behaviors. If the word behaviors is part of your vocabulary, then that's the time that we need to pause.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Because that every one of us has behaviors. We all have them until the day we die. Thank God. We got to figure out that we can match those behaviors.

“Behaviors” And The Dementia Village Lesson

SPEAKER_01 16:06

I will admit that I used to use that term a lot because it's a term that's used in the industry all of the time. It is. Whether it's trying to get proper care or proper placement or from the hospital to rehab, and that's that comes up all the time. Well, you know, this person has behaviors. And there's a couple of things that so I mentioned, and my uh listeners know that I had an opportunity to go to what many people refer to as the dementia village in Hokovic, Netherlands. And I, you know, still was in that mindset of okay, you know, well, then there's behaviors we try to distract and things like that. And we were doing a little tour, and they have this grocery store, like a real grocery store that the residents there can just go in, and every resident kind of has a different uh way of handling that. And so I said, Well, what if they just pick stuff up off the account shelves and walk out? What do you do? And I said, I imagine you just try to distract them and put it back, and they're they're like, That's not that's not a conversation we have. Everybody's gonna be different. Maybe sometimes we bill it to their house. If they have resources, maybe we bill it to their account. We don't try to distract, we just try to deal with the situation. And if they want the apple from the grocery store and they leave with it, we make note of it, and somehow that's dealt with financially or whatever. But there was no attempt to distract. In fact, one of the things that I thought was the most fascinating about that was when we talked about things like sundowners or what I used to call behaviors, they said, Well, we don't have a whole lot of that. And their philosophy was an active day where they're doing things they want to do and not being restricted from what they do leads to peaceful nights.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

You know, it really does.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

A well-lived day leads leads to peaceful nights. And one of the things we saw people, you know, walking around and they would join our group and they spoke a different language than us. There was one person that joined our tour group that didn't speak any English at all, and she was fascinated by the conversations we have. She was very engaged in it. We could not now our guide obviously spoke her language, but even that she said, Well, I couldn't really understand exactly what she was saying, even though she was speaking, she spoke the same language, it wasn't necessarily completely coherent. But she she had a great day that day. She got to do a tour with the Americans.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

How cool is that?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah. And so one of the things I thought about afterwards, I was talking to one of our staff that we brought with us over there, and I said, you know, I'm pretty sure that if somebody told me that I was restricted to this area and I couldn't wander around or have some time alone or just go for a walk, I'd have behaviors too. Exactly. I don't have dementia, but I'm pretty sure I have behaviors if I was restricted on being able to go for a walk or being alone for a little bit.

Building Friendly Functional Forgiving Spaces

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Yeah, no one actually walks up to me and tries to distract me. Yeah, exactly. If they do, it's like, you know, for something positive, like they're trying to distract me because there's a surprise birthday party. I mean, we don't use the word distraction for autonomous, independent adults. So when we start to try and think, if I need to distract this person, then I'm not able at that moment to identify skillfully what engagement would look like. So you talked about this grocery store. What a great example. This idea that they have a situation where they look at whatever could happen and they have figured out to what we call the four F's. And this takes a lot of brains together sometimes working. It is when you've got a setting that is familiar, a grocery store to the folks that are coming in there engaging with it are familiar. Is it actually friendly? Is it someplace that people want to go and engage with? Is it actually functional for them? Am I getting the things that I like, want, and need when I go in there? And is it forgiving? This idea that when I know I want the apple, I can take it. And we have set up a system not to distract or to say, oh no, let me pay for that. That's facilitating. That's trying to distract you until I can get my needs met. But they have made it forgiving in such a way that we figure out, well, okay, in other situations, this would be deemed stealing. That's not really forgiving, nor is it really friendly or familiar or functional for this person. We want them to have this apple. Let's make it so we'll figure out the payment on the back end. Let's be honest. And we should pause here because as much as we're advocating and talking about the rights of individuals living with dementia, the bottom line here is if we are not bringing our big brains together, all of us, including people living with dementia, to figure out how it is we facilitate environments such that you're describing with less resources, less of a beautiful setup that they have, and how to make things actually every day friendly, familiar, functional, and forgiving, we're never going to get beyond the place where I don't judgmentally deem what you're doing as a behavior and what I am doing as functional and appropriate.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Right. Once we kind of readjust our thinking on this, how do we then interact with those that have maybe sometimes financial incentive to really sort of contain and you know?

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

So whether it be in a care giving setting, whether it be in a rehab type setting or a long-term care type setting, assisted living memory care. You know, memory care, everybody talks about that as this really positive thing, but really what it is is locking people up in a small area.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah.

Advocacy With Hospitals And Care Systems

SPEAKER_01 21:49

And so I'm not I'm not criticizing memory care so much as I'm saying, you know, maybe there's a better way than that, and that we can't we'd just be so in the box thinking. That the answer is, oh, well, we're just going to put all the people that have significant memory issues and lock them up in this small building. So, how do you advocate for this outside of your own thinking and your own family when you're dealing with doctors and hospitals and industry, which is big at this point?

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Yeah, if we don't actually think about and use our PAC skills, our positive approach to care skills in such a way that I am thinking in this moment, what is the doctor in front of me? What is their needs? What is the medical billers' needs? What is the nursing staff? What are their needs? What are the social workers' needs? What are the social work trying to actually do? What are the family's needs? And then I also, if I'm facilitating this, having to be the one thinking about if I can't exactly figure it out, I've got to infer the unmet needs of the individual living with dementia, that advocacy side of it. I have to lay out all those needs on the table, acknowledging the same way we do when someone comes up to me and says, Hey, hey, listen, I want to go home. And I simply have learned how to acknowledge, oh, you want to go home. Tell me more about that. You want to go home to just be there, or do you got to do something? I've got to dig at how it is, what your unmet needs are. That takes a lot of patience. That every single person in that conversation, we have these. They're called care plans. In that care plan, are we acknowledging the needs of the system, the needs of the individuals, and figuring out which ones of those are simply man-made that we can tweak? How we facilitate the use of a doctor's orders, how we acknowledge the desire and the rights and the values of the individual who is paying the bill, and the individual who's the consumer of the goods here, and that's the person living with dementia. In healthcare, we've got this unbelievable issue that actually is not just two sides. The customer is rarely the consumer of goods. The person paying for the service is rarely the one using the service. But then in healthcare, especially when we're talking about endangered populations or populations that do require protection and support, that there is a third party here, and that is right. That is also the issue of safety. Having all those laid out on the table to acknowledge and find that balance, and it's going to change for every single situation. That's where that communication validating where everyone's coming from really makes a difference. The number of conversations I can have with family that says, and I, as long as I validate you made a promise to your dad when he died that you would do everything in your power to keep your mom safe. And your all she wants to do is jump out of an airplane and go parachuting for the first time in her life. It seems nuts, doesn't it? And that is completely the opposite of what your father was hoping. Right. So let's pause here. This is where we can start to lay these acknowledgements on the table and figure out where is it that I am simply uncomfortable with something? Where is something that's happening? Well, it's risky, but it's not actually a danger to life and limb. And really acknowledge on that scale what is it that I am just feeling and imposing on this? Something that just is uncomfortable to me. I'm acting like it's risky. Or something that, yeah, it's risky, but nobody's gonna die in the next 20 minutes. If we lay that on the table, we can start to sort out what are our values, what are the societal norms, and what are the options we actually do have.

Balancing Freedom Risk And Safety

SPEAKER_01 25:36

One of the thought processes that I've kind of learned to accept and is very difficult for families to accept because kind of that conversation you had about when dad died, we promised that we'd make sure mom was safe or take care of mom. And there is that kind of protective nature of, well, now we have to make sure that nothing bad happens. Well, that's not, you know, that's not living life. The the we all take risks, right? You know, I fall down sometimes. And that and and I wouldn't want to stop doing the things that would make it so it's less likely so that I won't fall down anymore, because then I'm not really living my life. And so, you know, sometimes there's sort of this has to be this acceptance of, and and I'm getting where this some people will find this uncomfortable to have this conversation, but sometimes people fall, sometimes people die. And so sometimes we're you know, that that whole conversation about well, we can't, you know, we can't let somebody have any sort of freedom or you know, freedom comes with risk, and and and living your life comes with risk. That's we all experience it every day, and then somehow we're shutting that off and expecting people to then not have a reaction to that. And so the reality is, and this is this where I think that you know, this will be difficult for families to hear sometimes, but sometimes people die, and and maybe that's the nature of the thing. And if you're doing everything to prevent that death, that might not be what's in the best interest of that person to live their natural life cycle.

Caregiver Stress And Box Breathing

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Exactly. And I think that what you're outlining beautifully is there's a big difference between giving up, saying, well, fine, I mean, this is gonna happen. Demen in dementia, the sensory motor strip changes and falls happen. Even more so if it's a movement disorder or dementia like Lewy body dementia or Parkinson's dementia, falls happen. There's a difference between giving up and skillfully, thoughtfully letting go. Letting go of this idea that I'm gonna get zero falls, but figuring out what it is, how the brain and the body works, making those aware choices to learn that instead of telling my mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, listen, listen, sit down, sit down. Do you want to fall? Well, yes, that's exactly honey, why I was getting up. In fact, I was getting up because I wanted to fall. But recognizing this is my own amygdala, my fight or flight center, saying, Oh, if I don't stop this now, mom's gonna die. Rather, acknowledging and recognizing this takes a skill of going, hey mom, who no longer has the ability to recognize she's really unsteady and has actually pushed her, taken her walker, put it to the side and gone to get up, not recognizing that that's the thing that actually can facilitate her standing and walking safely. But rather I can say, Hey, mom, you want to go. Offer that support to be there because guess what? Together, let's go is a very different reaction with the same outcome of being able to get up and go, but with assistance. It's this balance of recognizing I'm not gonna let go of the fact that mom's gonna get up and fall, but rather skillfully letting go of this idea that the fall's never gonna happen. What is it that I can do differently? What can I learn in that moment? That's gonna require a lot of conversation with a lot of people that have varying levels of comfort with actually being in the moment and truly skillfully letting go when it just feels like you're giving up.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

So can you talk to us a little bit about, you know, caregivers and making sure that they're taking care of themselves?

SPEAKER_00 29:28

You caregivers, you've heard this again and again, haven't you? Again and again. It's the reason why we keep bringing it up. It is actually incredibly critical. This old concept of putting on your own oxygen mask. If I'm not going to be awake to be able to help someone else, we're both lost. It is actually true. But how? Especially when this has been superimposed on you. This wasn't even, you know, you ended up moving across the world and now you find yourself back home helping out. And that was never the plan. This is the moment where it's little bite sizes. It is little things that I can do. It is self-reflection moments, things I can do while maybe I'm multitasking. We can't multitask, it's a reality. But what I can do is maybe take deep breaths and breathes while I'm folding the laundry. Is am I able to release your eye contact, look away, giving my brain a break and going, hey mom, no matter what I see. It is in truth, this is scientifically based. A group of care partners were actually followed over time, and some they were all taught breathing techniques. But one group was given an alert that five times a day they took, I think it was three deep breaths. And I mean deep breaths skillfully, like you breathe in for four. I'm sorry, you breathe in, yeah, breathe in for breathe, hold. So it's box breathing, hold, breathe out and hold. Actually calming my entire sensory system. They did this five times a day and showed marked differences in their stress hormone levels as compared to those people who actually just taught breathing techniques and reminded to breathe. So, can you do things to facilitate your own ability to take deep breaths? Do you have some sort of signals? Are you that professional or maybe that family care partner that you walk into those double doors at a nursing home and you actually get to that first set of doors and you stop and you say, okay, the signal between these two doors is that I'm gonna take a deep breath, I'm gonna set aside the craziness of my life today, and I'm gonna try to be present for my mom. Because what I've heard again and again for those individuals who actually can be present, that when that time comes, and all of these 120 to now we're thinking more like 200 different forms, types, and causes dementia, when that journey is over, the little moments, the little smile, even before the lack of recognition comes into the eyes, or the silly laughs of mistakes, those are the things we look back on and miss. If I can't actually be present now to find moments of joy, I can no longer actually articulate why it is I like you. I know why I love you, but if I can't articulate why it is I like you, that's a call. That's a moment to say, actually, I'm gonna need some help. That is reaching out to your local senior center, reaching out to your social workers, reaching out to someone in your community, clergy, saying, I'm not at a place where I could any longer have perspective in this caregiving journey. And I do have to actually actively seek out some help.

Key Takeaways And Where To Learn More

SPEAKER_01 32:41

And I think that's so important too, because there is a certain almost expectation that you just have to put the weight of the world on your shoulders. And it really is important to seek out help. Yeah. This has just been a really great conversation. Any takeaways that you want to leave our audience with?

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Yeah, I would say, and you know, looking at my own family's beginning of this journey, the reality is that the work up front that I do now, the decisions I make right now, can have profound impact on the relationship later on. That in fact, what I have learned from my friends living with dementia is that life is possible after diagnosis. But it is going to take us working together. It's gonna take not only acknowledging the changes in the person living with dementia, but acknowledging that if I really want this journey to be something that's possible, that it's gonna take some learning on my part. But it is possible, and even joy and life is possible in dementia.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Well, excellent. If you want to learn more, you can go to the website teepasnow.com, and teepa is T-E-E-P-A-S-N-O-W.com. You can find Dr. Nolan on LinkedIn, or we talked about YouTube and all the other places that you can find information about the positive approach to care and TeepaSnow. And so thank you so much, Dr. Nolan, and we appreciate you coming on and having this great conversation with us.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Thanks for having me, and thanks for doing what you do.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

If you enjoyed this podcast, don't forget to subscribe. And anywhere you listen to podcasts, you can find advice from your advocates on our website for the law office, which is manorlawgroup.com, or you can check out our YouTube at Manor Law. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Thanks for listening. To learn more, visit manorlawgroup.com.