By David A. F. Sweet
Cathy Samatas recalls conducting a training for a professional caregiver. Aside from helping others, the woman had also been taking care of own mother, who was afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease.
The caregiver placed a virtual-reality headset over her own eyes. She saw what a busy dining room might feel like for someone with dementia.
Cathy Samatas shows how to use virtual-reality headgear to watch Dementia Reality videos.
Once she finished the empathy training, she took off the headset and sighed.
“She said, ‘I knew, but I just didn’t understand,” recalled Samatas. “I love those transformational moments in our training. Virtual reality is the next tool to capture people’s attention and to give them an experience they couldn’t have otherwise.”
Samatas developed Dementia Reality, the training experienced by the caregiver. It was launched in 2022 by Chicago’s CJE SeniorLife—where Samatas is the director of engagement and innovative programming—and Palatine’s Elderwerks Educational Services. Using real-life scenarios, the idea is to make caregivers more empathetic to what their clients are enduring, which will improve the quality of their patients’ care. Nurses, social workers and other health-care professionals who interact with older adults living with dementia can also benefit from the training.
Paisley Valentincic, vice president and chief marketing officer of CJE SeniorLife, has been involved with spreading the word about Dementia Reality for about a year. Senior living and dementia care communities have been engaged in training with the product. A family caregiving class was introduced last fall.
“This virtual-reality system is amazing to watch,” Valentincic said. “You have people scream out, ‘Don’t treat her like that!’ You create this emotional connection to the training.”
In partnership with Elderwerks, CJE SeniorLife has built the training curriculum (which includes PowerPoints and manuals) and hired actors for the videos. There are six modules, which range from showing how to support daily activities such as dressing a patient to recognizing early signs of agitation. Classes are offered at CJE SeniorLife, where family caregivers can bring their loved ones for an adult-day service at no cost to enjoy some respite, or at an agreed-upon location.
“You have people scream out, ‘Don’t treat her like that!’ You create this emotional connection to the training.” says Paisley Valentincic about Dementia Reality.
The one-hour training starts with an in-person facilitator who explains who, what, how—in other words, who is the person, what’s going on with the disease process, and how do you respond in a supportive way. The virtual-reality experience—the first to offer multiple perspectives in role-specific scenarios of what a life burdened with dementia is like—is designed to give caregivers and others a deeper understanding of their approach and their patients’ fear.
“They’ll watch a caregiver doing a not-so-ideal job and what that means for person they were caring for,” Samatas said. “Then they’ll see the caregiver doing it in more supportive way.
“Next, they will embody the person with dementia. We create distortions, hallucinations—we disorient them to see what it’s like. We have a shower scene with a black towel on a floor—the person with dementia sees it as a hole. It allows the caregiver to understand the totality of what a person’s reality may be. We want them to meet someone where they’re at.”
The inspiration to create Dementia Reality occurred when, during a thunderstorm, a tree fell onto Samatas’ car. She was stuck for hours. Samatas thought how, just like her, those in nursing homes likely wished they were elsewhere. For patients in her assisted-living community, she soon created a virtual-reality video of Israel for those who had lived there. One gentleman watched it, started crying and said, “I can see my town. I want to go back!”
After a number of modifications—including significantly shortening the training from the original six-hour sessions—Dementia Reality was ready. Costs of training today vary according to an organization’s size and use. After classes, the software can be licensed for further staff training.
A tree falling on her car was a key step for Samatas to eventually create Dementia Reality.
Samatas is passionate that stressed-out caregivers develop empathy.
“Empathy is not something the health-care industry spends a lot of time training on,” she said. “But realistically, sometimes care becomes task oriented. This is a relationship, and you must treat it differently.”
Valentincic and Samatas would like to expand the reach of Dementia Reality customers and have talked with universities and schools about incorporating the training in their curriculums.
“There’s no limit for us,” Samatas said. “We’re at the beginning stages of where this will all go.”
Unsung Gems columnist David A. F. Sweet can be reached at dasfweet@aol.com.
