Using a program called Virtual Dementia Tour, nursing staff, community members and other caregivers approximate the cognitive, emotional and physiological changes associated with age-related dementia.
“Compassion is essential, but if you have empathy, too, it’s a whole different thing,” Kate Robinson, a registered nurse at the Island Nursing Home and Care Center in Deer Isle, said. And because empathy, by definition, can only be achieved by having shared the experience of dementia and its associated emotions, the facility does its best to provide the opportunity.
Using a program called Virtual Dementia Tour, nursing staff, community members and other caregivers approximate the cognitive, emotional and physiological changes associated with age-related dementia.
By Meg Haskell
