The Memory Care Innovation program is designed to recognize passionate and innovative industry members who are shaping the future of cognitive care across behavioral health, home health and home care, hospice and palliative care, senior housing, and skilled nursing. To see this year’s inaugural Memory Care Innovation Award winners, visit https://innovation.memorycarebusiness.com/.
Amy Kowinsky, the executive director of Dementia360 at Presbyterian SeniorCare, has been named a 2024 Memory Care Innovation Award Winner.
To become a Memory Care Innovation Award winner, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who knows how to put vision into action, and serve as an advocate for those living with memory-related disorders and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.
Kowinsky sat down with Home Health Care News to talk about how family caregiver support and coaching should be an automatic part of dementia care.
What drew you to working in memory care?
As a child, I remember being referred to as an “old soul” before I even knew what that meant.
My grandparents were always some of my favorite people in the world. My initial career path was in nutrition, and then health care quality improvement, and I was very happy and fulfilled in my work.
When my Nan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, and my mother and I became caregivers, and I came to understand firsthand what families on this journey experience, I felt called to take my “improvement mindset” and channel it toward helping to reduce suffering and improve quality of life for families walking this path.
What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in memory care?
In our business we often say, “If you’ve met one person living with dementia, you’ve met one person living with dementia.” What this refers to is that every person with the disease looks different, depending on the type of dementia they have, the part of their brain that is being affected, and who they were before the onset of dementia.
I’d like to add, “If you’ve met one family on the dementia journey, you’ve met one family on the dementia journey.” Every family experiences and processes this disease differently, and often individuals in the very same family experience it differently from one another as well. It is critical to understand the journey from the family’s perspective, in order to be able to understand where they’re at and how we can support them in the way they want to be supported. To do that though, you have to do a whole lot more listening than talking.
If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of memory care, what would it be?
Family caregiver support and coaching would be an automatic part of every treatment plan with a new dementia diagnosis.
What is the biggest obstacle to being innovative in memory care, and how do you try to overcome that obstacle?
The biggest obstacle right now is that the conversation around dementia is still very negative, focusing on losses and what a person can no longer do, and the fact that there is no cure and that it is eventually fatal. When faced with a new diagnosis, families are told to get their affairs in order and are given little insight on what they can do now to promote good days. No wonder people delay getting a diagnosis!
The conversation around dementia needs to be changed, and at Dementia360 we are working to change it. Caregivers need to feel empowered and supported, and to understand that they have the power to influence what the disease looks like in their family member more than any medication ever could.
In a word, how would you describe the future of memory care?
I would describe the future of memory care being at HOME. I would foresee it being more like hospice, where the vast majority of care is provided at home – by family and by trained professionals. And then, for symptoms that cannot be managed at home, a person would transition to long-term care either temporarily until symptoms are better managed or until the end of life.
If you could give advice to yourself looking back to your first day in the industry, what would it be and why?
The work will never be done until there are no more families experiencing dementia. Our program can always be improved upon to better meet the needs of the next family we serve. We may have amassed all of the knowledge in the world or have all of the resources at our fingertips, but to a family just starting the journey, it is critical to meet them at the start line right where they are at and match the information you share with the information and support they need right at that moment.
