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Program in South Fayette addresses communicating with disoriented seniors

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 3 min read
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Imagine flying in an airplane at a relatively low altitude above, for example, a country in the middle of Europe.

That’s how Maureen Sirianni tells Country Meadows of South Hills staff members to set the scene for an instructional exercise during adult education sessions.

“I’m going to put a parachute on you and I’m going to push you out of this airplane,” she will say during the sessions. “You’re going to land in a cornfield. All you see is a bunch of people running toward you, and they’re all speaking a different language that you don’t understand. What’s your first thought?”

Responses include the likes of: “Where am I?” “Where’s my family? How do I get a hold of them?” “Are these people coming toward me going to hurt me?”

“And slowly,” Sirianni explained, “they start to realize, wow. That must be what it’s like to have dementia.”

As manager for Country Meadows’ Connections Memory Support Services, Sirianni works extensively with people who have Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions, and she also teaches others about how to do so effectively, particularly with regard to communication.

An educational opportunity for municipal police officers throughout the area is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 20 in Building 3 of the retirement community, 3570 Washington Pike, South Fayette Township.

The program, “Supporting the Aging Population in the Communities You Serve,” draws upon the principles of the Validation Method of communicating with disoriented senior citizens. Sirianni, who is a certified teacher of the method, described it as “an empathetic form of communication based on non-judgment. It’s recognizing different levels of cognition and knowing what is the appropriate manner to react and respond to those levels.”

Sirianni’s goal is to provide law enforcement officials with a better understanding of how to manage situations involving someone with Alzheimer’s or other forms of memory loss, a key component of which is establishing a personal connection.

“It’s important to me that officers know that there are some simplistic communication tools that we can provide to help them build that rapport and that trust from the get-go,” she said.

Doing so may be a challenge, as many people with memory impairment suffer from accompanying expressive aphasia, the inability to speak coherently, and/or receptive aphasia, the inability to understand words.

“They express themselves in manners sometimes that are very impatient or very disruptive,” Sirianni said. “I tell adult daughters and sons and spouses, ‘They’re doing the best that they can to communicate with you.'”

A perception of combativeness also can arise during situations in which a person is presented with basic facts that he or she does not believe to be true. And someone with a military background could cause friction by drawing on past experiences.

“They’re living on a different level of consciousness, and the reactions that they provide throughout the day are based on their perception of what their brain is allowing them to take in,” Sirianni said.

Continuing education credits are available for municipal police personnel who participate in “Supporting the Aging Population in the Communities You Serve.” For more information, contact Maureen Sirianni at msirianni@countrymeadows.com or 412-257-2855, ext. 55266.

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