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General Session and Keynote Speakers
SUNDAY, January
24, 2010
6 to 7:30 pm
Opening General Session
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Val J. Halamandaris, JD
President National Association for Home Care & Hospice |
Val J. Halamandaris has been President of the National
Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), the parent
organization of the Private Duty Homecare Association (PDHCA),
since its inception in 1982. For the past 27 years, he has
guided NAHC to become one of the most respected organizations
in Washington, D.C. and has helped solidify and expand home
health services as a Medicare benefit. Now, Halamandaris
is helping lead the private duty home care industry to realize
its great potential as the senior population expands to unprecedented
numbers and more and more Americans require help to remain
in their own homes and communities. The Baby Boom Generation
is the wealthiest that America has seen, and because the
need for long-term care is so great, demand for home care
services will increase dramatically in the future, Halamandaris
predicts. Private pay home care agencies and the services
and supports they provide will be the answer to this need,
and have also proven pivotal to the recovery and growth of
the U.S. economy.
A native of Utah, Halamandaris worked his way through college
on the staff of Sen. Frank E. Moss, and continued working
full time as he completed his law degree at Catholic University
Law School. In addition to being a trade association executive,
he is an attorney, author, publisher, editor, film producer,
published photographer, and humanitarian. Halamandaris founded
The World Home Care & Hospice Organization, The Caring
Institute, The Frederick Douglass Museum, The Foundation
for Hospice and Home Care, The Center for Health Care Law,
and CARING Magazine.
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Dr. Verna Benner Carson
President of C&V Senior Care Specialists, Inc. |
Dr. Verna Benner Carson is the President of C&V Senior
Care Specialists, Inc. offering training, operations, and
marketing services in the areas of behavioral health and
Alzheimer’s care across the healthcare continuum. She
has extensive experience in all facets of elder care, including
assisted living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and
home care. For 11 years, Dr. Carson served as the National
Director of Behavioral Health for Tender Loving Care Health
Care Services. In addition, Dr. Carson is an advanced practice
registered nurse specializing in psychiatric/mental health
nursing.
In the home care arena, she is viewed as the national expert
on psychiatric home care, having authored eight nationally-renowned
books on the subject matter. Dr. Carson is perhaps best known
for her work on the unique needs of the Alzheimer’s
patient. In October 1995, Dr. Carson was recognized by the
American Psychiatric Nurses Association for Innovative Nursing
Practice for her pioneering work in the field of Psychiatric
Home Care. She served as guest editor for the January 2001
edition of CARING, contributing an article on depression,
as well as penning an editorial. She developed the “Becoming
an Alzheimer’s Whisperer” Program, “allowing
the caregiver to calm the fears of the person caught up in
this terrible disease and to courageously enter that person’s
world and heal his or her broken spirit.” The program
was recognized with a Best Practices in Dementia Care Award
by the American Psychiatric Nurses Association in 2005. She
has trained approximately 2,000 health care providers across
the continuum of senior care in the techniques of “Becoming
an Alzheimer’s Whisperer”.
Program Description
A Loving and Gentle Approach to Challenging
Behaviors with Alzheimer’s Patients
A far too common theme in the world of providing private
duty services has become how to actually help the Alzheimer’s
patient. How can we not only deliver the basic necessities
that these clients need, but how can we make a difference
in their lives? Such is the theme of Dr. Carson’s compelling
talk, “Becoming an Alzheimer’s Whisperer.”
Becoming an Alzheimer’s Whisperer means that we learn
to calm the fears of the person caught up in this terrible
disease, that we courageously enter that person’s world
and heal their broken spirits. Some people are naturally
gifted in doing this. They just know how to diffuse agitation
before it explodes; they know how to find joy and humor in
the role of caregiver and they allow the person with Alzheimer’s
to continue to experience joy and humor. They make no demands
of the person with Alzheimer’s; they know that it is
themselves that must change – not the loved one with
the disease. This presentation is not for the gifted ones – it
is for all the rest of us. We can learn to become Alzheimer’s
Whisperers.
In order to enter the world of a patient or resident, it
is essential to understand as much as possible about the
world of Alzheimer’s disease. This presentation provides
a brief review of the Theory of Retrogenesis that not only
provides structure to examine the world of the person with
AD but also suggests appropriate ways to respond to what
we see in that world. Multiple scenarios will be presented
to make this session as real and concrete as possible including
scenarios that deal with wandering, repetitive behaviors,
agitation and aggression, resistance to care, and sundowning.
Using the Theory of Retrogenesis and the various assessment
tools presented, participants will examine the stages of
Alzheimer’s, the change in cognitive level of the person
as he/she moves through each stage of the disease, and specific
strategies for understanding and responding to behaviors
that emanate from that person’s world.
Dr. Verna Benner Carson is the President of C&V Senior
Care Specialists, Inc. offering training, operations, and
marketing services in the areas of behavioral health and
Alzheimer’s care across the healthcare continuum. She
has extensive experience in elder care, including assisted
living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and home care.
In the home care arena, she is viewed as the national expert
on psychiatric home care, having authored eight nationally-renowned
books on the subject matter.
Objectives:
- Describe at least three characteristics of an Alzheimer’s
Whisperer;
- Apply the FAST scale to the management of challenging
behaviors; and
- Discuss gentle and loving “Alzheimer Whisperer” interventions
for challenging behaviors such as repetition, agitation,
aggression, and resistance to bathing.
Course
level: Intermediate; 1.0 nursing CEs; 1.0 CPEs (NASBA/PHR).
MONDAY, January
25, 2010
9 to 10 am
General Session–Keynote Address
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James Mapes
Founder and President of The Quantum Leap Thinking Organization |
James Mapes is the founder and president of The Quantum
Leap Thinking Organization, creator of The Transformation
Coach™ program, best- selling author, highly acclaimed
business speaker, consultant, seminar leader and personal
excellence coach. For over 30 years, Mapes has been an ardent
student of human behavior and dedicated to helping individuals,
teams and organizations identify and break through barriers
to reach their goals and achieve success. He encourages people
to be open to new ways of thinking, and his goal is to help
everyone make the “quantum leap” toward more
creative, productive and confident lives. For both businesses
and individuals, his message promotes an innovative, powerful
way of thinking and provides a new-found mastery over their
perceptions so that, in his words, “the invisible becomes
visible and the impossible becomes possible.” The results
have been nothing short of extraordinary, creating key breakthroughs
in both organizational and personal performance.
He has created material for many industry publications
and his corporate training film, Creating Our Future, was
rated one of the year’s ten best by Successful Meetings
magazine. Mapes has created an ongoing series of self-improvement
audio recordings and writes a syndicated newspaper column.
His two books, Quantum Leap Thinking: An Owner’s Guide
to the Mind and The Workbook: The Magic of Quantum Leap Thinking,
are highly acclaimed. Since 1983, he has worked with hundreds
of public and private companies in more than 70 countries.
His clients include the health care industry, financial institutions,
training and development divisions of large corporations
and major not-for-profit organizations. Mapes’ work
has earned him appearances on CNN, The Today Show, Good Morning
America and Fox Family Channel, among other media outlets.
Mapes graduated from California State University with a
Master of Arts degree in theater and speech. In the 1970’s,
Mapes became interested in the power of the subconscious
mind. To better understand this intriguing area, he researched
psychology, philosophy, neurology and eventually, hypnotherapy.
His expertise quickly earned him recognition as a clinical
hypnotist, becoming highly effective in assisting clients
in weight reduction, smoking cessation, the elimination of
phobias and pain reduction for terminally ill cancer patients.
As a skilled practitioner of regression techniques, he helped
the New York City Police Department in “memory recovery” with
both witnesses to, and victims of, crime and he has worked
with professional athletes to help improve their performance
in their sport.
Mapes’ presentations are personal, interactive and
humorous. Above all, he creates results and makes a lasting
difference in the energy level, commitment and productivity
of each individual in his audience.
Tuesday,
January 26, 2010
11:30 am to 1:30 pm
Closing General Session
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William A. Dombi, Esq.
Vice President of Legal Affairs, National Association
for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), Director, Center for
Health Care Law in Washington, DC |
Home Care: Right for the Times
Because Bill Dombi has been front and center in the United
States advocating and working for home care issues for 34 years;
he has gained remarkable insight into the increasing role for
private duty/private pay providers now and well into the future.
He is an advocate for the majority of people, who if given
the choice, will chose to remain at home with care when an
event triggers the need.
In a recent interview with Bill, he discussed what he would
present at the closing luncheon of PDHCA. Here are excerpts
from that conversation:
Clients may be suffering from chronic illnesses, moving
from acute episodes to post acute, or simply trying to remain
in as stable a condition as possible. Whatever the need for
care, remaining at home in familiar and often cherished surroundings
is an overwhelming desire that private duty/private pay can
help fill.
It is the wide range of services offered by a variety
of private duty/private pay models that helps make this possible.
From care management to homemaking, companion services to
personal care, and well beyond, in some cases, the supportive
services offered in a private pay model are only increasing
as the needs increase. However, as more people enter into
the field the demand for quality and accountability for the
services will also increase.
Creating professional standards is essential to the private
duty/private pay world. It is time to look at private accreditation
based on standards for the industry, the organization, personnel,
competencies, financial, client services and much more. If
accreditation is done correctly, it could potentially be
an alternative to state licensure in those states where licensure
has not been enacted. Furthermore, standards and accreditation
that are widely recognized and accepted could potentially
make private duty agency services have better reimbursement
possibilities by long term care insurance policies.
Just ask in the halls of Congress: Who is the most powerful
lobby for home care? You will hear “National Association
for Home Care and Hospice” resoundingly. It is this
acceptance of NAHC as the most widely respected industry
association for home care that makes belonging to the Private
Duty Homecare Association so important. As an affiliate of
NAHC, PDHCA has the clout to work on setting standards and
granting accreditation that is recognized. And, in Washington
today there are certainly many other issues that relate solidly
to private duty. So the energy that comes with association
with NAHC can be used in many positive ways.
Home care is right for the times….no matter which
payor is used, Medicare or private pay. To the patient or
client, home care is home care, meaning there is someone
coming into the home to address their needs, be it assistance
with a bath or complicated wound care or providing care and
comfort for a dying patient.
As you can see, this closing session will send you back to
work energized and proud to be in home care. In addition to
Bill’s long term service in the home care industry, he
also brings insights from some personal experiences. Bill has
agreed to also share these positive, truthful, and motivating
personal experiences he has had with home care over the years. |
