The role of an Occupational Therapist in dementia support (part 1)

Your Aged Care Compass

Laura Stasinowsky is an occupational therapist (OT) and dementia consultant who is passionate about supporting people to live well with dementia. Laura works within the Your Brain in Mind clinic in Brisbane. She supports people at any stage of their journey with dementia, working with both the individuals who are diagnosed with dementia and their families.

Coral and Laura talk about the role of the OT in improving quality of life for a person diagnosed with dementia. They discuss how to communicate with someone who has advanced dementia and how making small changes to non-verbal cues can improve outcomes.

In this episode:

• What does an occupational therapist (OT) do?
• How the OT helps a person with dementia
• Simple strategies to help people stay independent at home
• The person with dementia usually has other health conditions
• Helping people to understand the diagnosis and what to expect
• The timing of giving information and why it’s important
• Understand whether people are coping or not
• Consider other members of the person’s family as well
• The importance of having a GP review
• Fear of social stigma
• How to communicate with someone who has dementia
• Loss of peripheral vision and how to work with this
• Put yourself in the shoes of the person with dementia

Resources mentioned:

• Let’s Talk Consultation

Connect with Laura Stasinowsky:

• Website: Alongside You
• Website: Your Brain in Mind
• LinkedIn
• Email: [e-mail]

Connect with Coral Wilkinson:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Guiding you through My Aged Care | SeeMeACN website

More about Your Aged Care Compass podcast:

Are you supporting an older loved one at home and ready to give up because it’s just too hard? Your Aged Care Compass is aimed at anyone who is caring for an older loved one who still lives at home and is wondering what support is available to them.

We're Coral and Michelle, the sisters behind our business, See Me Aged Care Navigators.

Coral is a registered nurse with over 30 years’ experience in both health and aged care. A former assessor with the aged care assessment team, an advocate and author, there’s not much Coral doesn’t know about Australia’s aged care system.

Michelle is a former pharmacist with over 30 years in the public health and private sectors of pharmacy. Michelle is now client care manager for our business.

Our story started as one of supporting our parents to remain in their own home, to be as independent as possible and remain connected to their community. We reached a point however, of needing extra support and we achieved this because we know Australia’s aged care system so well, we knew what programs could assist us and our parents.

This podcast, Your Aged Care Compass, brings together not only our personal experience in supporting our own ageing parents but also our vast professional experience in supporting other families to keep their loved ones at home.

We will help you makes sense of Australia’s aged care system, from your first contact with My Aged Care through to the different funding streams and assessment workforces, management options for home care packages and extra funding that people might be eligible for.

There's so much more. Topics relating to dementia and legal and financial considerations will be covered, as well as real life stories of where it went wrong for people and how we guided them to get it right.

Your Aged Care Compass will guide you clearly and compassionately to the right support at the right time for your ageing parents and loved ones.

Like what you hear? Please leave us a Rating and Review. We’d love you to share this podcast with any friends or family who have older loved ones.