Terra Nova Films, Chicago, IL. Philadelphia Geriatric Centre. 1997 (25 minutes)

Often in persons with dementia non-verbal signs are more accurate communications than verbalizations. This new video will teach caregivers how to understand and decipher facial expressions, vocal signs and body language in persons with dementia.

The video encourages viewers to look for subtle and fleeting verbal and non-verbal cues to understand and respond to emotions in persons with dementia. The video covers 5 emotions: interest, anxiety, anger, sadness and pleasure. The video can be used a teaching tool with professional caregivers and possibly with family caregivers. The video comes with a Facilitator’s Guide offering suggestions on how to introduce the topic, guide learning and how to lead a follow up discussion.

The video is the end result of a research project that looked at training the Certified Nursing Assistants (in USA – like our Residential Care Aides) to assist in setting Care Plans for Residents. The idea was that CNA would learn each resident’s facial and body language (after identifying a baseline facial appearance and posture) for the above mentioned emotions and use these within the Care Team to help set how to assist in ADL and other activities that better meet the resident’s needs. The goal by doing this was to decrease anger, anxiety and sadness while increasing interest and pleasure.

The video was made in 1995 and is dated in both style and technique. Although I felt the video was reviewing already learned skills, the feedback I received when I showed the video to a class of Resident Care Attendants was that they thought the video was good. They noted that it did not seem to have any new ideas, but it reminded them of needed skills and of person-centred care. They did mention that they had not considered looking for a resident’s baseline facial expression and then from there try to identify what the different emotions look like in that resident. It helped them understand that for many older people lines have settled into the face and these can lead to misinterpretation of emotions. It may help some caregivers to review this as well.

Reviewed by Katherine Guilbride, Support and Education Coordinator, Alzheimer Society of B.C.