NEWS:
Joyce has been named as one of Provider Magazine's "Top 20 to Watch in 2013"!Welcome
Thank you for visiting my web site! After almost 35 years in the healthcare industry my career grows in ways I never expected it too. A few years ago I was offered and accepted a position as an adjunct professor for a university in Sydney Australia where I have been engaged with in a research project for the Namaste Care Program I developed for people with advanced dementia. I have been to Sydney several times helping with the project and now the data is being gathered and paper have been written on the results.
This year I have been blessed to work with St. Christopher’s Hospice in London. They have grant money to implement Namaste Care in three aged care homes and have recruited three “controls” that will begin their own Namaste Care programs in September.
Last year, I presented a Namaste Care lecture at St. Christopher’s and one nurse Arlette Beebeejaun from Park Avenue Care Centre in Bromley an Excelcare facility in a London suburb attended the lecture, purchased a book and within a week had the program going. She is an inspiration! I had the great pleasure to visit them in February of this year and was overwhelmed with the compassion I saw from all staff and they have a Namaste Care program on every floor! This company has made a commitment to have Namaste Care in all of their care homes. …amazing!
Then I returned to the United States and had a similar experience. The executive director of Arden Courts Bingham Farms, MI. Debra Mittelbach, heard about Namaste Care, purchased the book, started the program, attended one of my workshops and one thing led to another and another and Arden Courts has become the first national assisted living company to make a commitment to offer Namaste Care in all of their assisted living communities! I have been working with them for the past several months and they are truly committed to providing exceptional care to their residents in all stages of a dementing illness. The addition of Namaste Care for residents with advanced dementia is just part of an array of programs that are designed for individual pursuits and small and large group programs. What a difference one person can make (thank you Debra).
Helping people live with quality to their lives in spite of a dementing illness is and continues to be one of the most important aspects of my life. I have developed three activity programs that can be implemented in assisted living communities, skilled nursing facilities, hospice organizations and adult day programs. For people with mild memory loss The Memory Enhancement Program (MEP) provides the comfort of a structured day with a small circle of "friends". Staff and families find that residents who participate in this program are more verbal and happier when they become part of the MEP.
The second program focuses on meeting the physical and social needs of people with moderate dementia called The Club a program that keeps people engaged in meaningful activities throughout their waking hours. We have data that shows this program lowers falls, decreases the use of psychotropic medication and increases staff and family satisfaction.
The third program I developed is Namaste Care, originally designed for residents in nursing homes with advanced dementia who were not able to actively participate in The Club. Now as I mentioned, it is in assisted living communities and hospice organizations. Namaste Care is based on the power of loving touch and is in fact, very powerful. I constantly hear stories of residents talking when they had stopped having conversations with family members. In the past few months two daughters told me that their mothers told them “I love you” words they had not heard for a very long time. So end-of-life care for people with dementia is catching on. "The End-of-Life Namaste Care Program for People with Dementia" published by Health Professions Press in 2007 sold more books in 2011 than it had ever sold and will be revised this summer (promise!) to reflect the changes I have experienced in the past few years. Please visit the Namaste Care web site for to learn more about more about this program.
In recent years I have managed to focus on both children and elders through my books, presentations and consulting, and a visit to any community often involves all three. The children’s book I wrote, The Magic Tape Recorder sold out, thankfully as many children do not know what a tape recorder is! I do continue to offer my "Grandma Joyce and the Kids" program to elementary school children. Please visit the Grandma Joyce website to learn more about this program.
My primary work continues to be consulting with assisted living, long-term care facilities and hospice organizations. Like much in my life, this was an unplanned career. As the mother of four children and short-term mom to multiple foster babies, the issues of children were my passion. But I fell in love with the elderly, especially people with dementia, the day I stepped into my first nursing facility in Ithaca, New York, and never looked back.
I have always tried to seize whatever opportunities life presented me and, as much as possible, to see opportunities in other people's obstacles. Robert Kennedy said "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" That is what I also believe. am so very blessed, thank you for taking time to visit this web site.
If you would like to talk with me further at anytime, please send an e-mail to joycesimard@earthlink.net.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Joyce