Best Friends Care Model

The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer's Care
"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and sings it back to you when you have forgotten the words."
There is a person beneath the cloak of dementia, one who has feelings, one who has led a life full of rich experiences, and one who deserves dignified care. The Best Friends model teaches us that it is important to have a clear picture of the person. It reminds us that a person with Alzheimer's disease needs a good friend, and that we as caregivers need to know the person as well as we know our best friend.
Catharine's uses the Best Friends Care Model as the foundation for its resident's dementia care. A pre-admission, "Life Story" form provides information about a person's childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, and later years. The person's Life Story information is gathered from family, friends, and the person and is a critical part of the Best Friends model of care. The details of the person's past help caregivers personalize activities that are more likely to touch long-term memories and thereby be successful. By collecting the person's Life Story and incorporating it into daily activities, the person's quality of life is enhanced and stress/anxiety reduced.

The Best Friends approach emphasizes the interrelationship between friendship and Alzheimer's care

Friends Know Each Other's History and Personality
In Alzheimer's care, a Best Friend
Knows about the person's life
Becomes the persons memory
Learns the person's personality, moods

Friends Do things Together
In Alzheimer's care, a Best Friend
Involves the person in daily activities and chores
Initiates activities and ties activities to the person's past skills and interests

Friends Communicate
In Alzheimer's care, a Best Friend
Listens skillfully
Speaks slowly and softly

Friends Build Self Esteem
In Alzheimer's care, a Best Friend
Gives compliments often
Always offers encouragement
Offers congratulations

Friends Laugh Often
In Alzheimer's care, a Best Friend
Tells jokes and funny stories
Takes advantage of spontaneous fun
Uses self-deprecating humor

Friends Are Equals
In Alzheimer's care, a Best Friend
Does not talk down to the person
Always works to protect the dignity of the person, to "save face"
Recognizes that learning is a two way street

Friends Work at the Relationship
In Alzheimer's care, a Best Friend
Builds a trusting relationship
Does more than 50% of the work
Shows affection often through touching and giving hugs

Source

  

The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer's Care is based on a book by the same name written by Virginia Bell and David Trowel. The authors have over 20 years of combined national and international experience in caring for people with Alzheimer's disease. The book is based on their experiences and those experiences of people with the disease and their caregivers.

The Best Friends Approach focuses on the things that persons with Alzheimer's can still do rather than on the things they can't. The approach emphasizes learning a person's personal history and incorporating it into all aspects of their daily care.

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