By Kristin Daugherty
Long-Term Care Planner, Certified Medicaid Planner™, Certified Dementia Practitioner and recognized as a NCCDP Certified Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia Care Trainer.
Think about a time when you felt so passionate about something that you couldn’t wait to learn more about it and jump right into implementing it. Was it eating healthy or exercising more? Taking your education to the next level? Or maybe it was learning to fly an airplane. We all have different skill sets and different things that we are passionate about and I want to share with you my most recent passion: creating a dementia-friendly firm.
I was fortunate enough to recently be acknowledged as a Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP) through the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners (NCCDP). While going through the intensive training, I realized that there is so much more that we can be offering our communities. I took it a step further and in January of this past year I traveled to Tempe, Arizona, to be recognized as a NCCDP Certified Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Care Trainer, along with other leading elder law firms throughout the Country. What an awesome experience!
Not only was the training so enlightening in ways to help front line workers dealing with persons with dementia, a lightbulb was switched on in my brain to figure out what we can be doing within our firm to help our staff and clients be better able to handle persons with dementia and their families.
If you have ever worked with our firm, you already know that we take our work very seriously and are always looking for new ways to provide better services and education to our clients and community. For years, our firm has been providing essential services to those with dementia and accommodating their needs. Taking my new passion and thinking about what we can be doing better, we came up with a plan.
Steinbacher, Goodall & Yurchak immediately made some changes such as simplifying our waiting rooms and conference rooms. We all know that clutter can be stimulating, but especially to someone who has dementia. Other immediate changes include assistive devices in conference rooms such as amplifiers to help those who have a hearing impairment, Y pens for those who have a hard time physically signing their names, white noise machines to help muffle outside noises, and even placing readers in the conference rooms for those who may need extra help with their vision.
Moving forward you may see other changes within the firm such as changes to conference room lighting and comfortable seating such as couches.
Additionally, we are scheduling trainings for the staff at Steinbacher, Goodall & Yurchak to ensure we can handle each caller and client with the utmost respect and compassion.
Do you want to learn more about how Steinbacher, Goodall &Yurchak can help your loved ones legally navigate a dementia diagnosis? We have a team of attorneys, Certified Medicaid Planners™, and support staff that are ready to respond to your dementia and planning needs. Call Steinbacher, Goodall & Yurchak today at 1-800-351-8334 or visit PaElderCounsel.com to schedule your FREE consultation.
