I noticed a couple of things of interest in my visits to facilities over the past week or two.
In a visit to Andrews of Summerside in PEI, I arrived a bit early for my session. The environmental staff person who was busy cleaning the floor noticed that a resident was looking for something to do. She picked up a ball and spent a few moments playing catch with the person. Great to see that she recognized a need and was willing to help the resident. In fact, at this same facility I was impressed to see that all of the care workers on the dementia unit stepped up and engaged memory care residents as they saw the need.
At Shoreham Village in Chester, NS all of the staff (yes, ALL of the staff) are now wearing simple white name tags that are imprinted with the person's first name in a bold, black font that is easy to read, just as they learned in the DementiAbility workshop. The staff are excited to be wearing them, and are even more excited by the fact that residents now greet them by name.