Teresa Krueger, Govt Director at WesleyLife, has been named a 2025 Reminiscence Care Innovation Award winner by Senior Housing Information.
The Reminiscence Care Innovation Awards program is designed to acknowledge passionate and modern trade members who’re shaping the way forward for cognitive care throughout behavioral well being, house well being and residential care, hospice and palliative care, senior housing and senior dwelling, and expert nursing. To turn into a Reminiscence Care Innovation Award winner, a person have to be nominated by their friends. The candidate must be a high-performing worker who is aware of the way to put imaginative and prescient into motion, serving as an advocate for these dwelling with memory-related issues and the dedicated professionals who guarantee their well-being.
Krueger sat down with Senior Housing Information to share her journey caring for sufferers and residents with cognitive care wants, her ideas on the way forward for cognitive care in senior housing & senior dwelling, and way more. To be taught extra in regards to the Reminiscence Care Innovation Awards program and think about this yr’s winners, go to https://innovation.memorycarebusiness.com/.
SHN: How lengthy have you ever been part of the reminiscence care, senior housing & senior dwelling trade?
Krueger: Over 20 years
SHN: What drew you to caring for sufferers/residents with cognitive care wants?
Krueger: Connecting with residents in reminiscence assist takes persistence, creativity, and coronary heart. As an alternative of correcting reminiscence lapses, staff members get to validate emotions and gently be part of the resident’s actuality within the following methods:
- Participating residents by senses. Via music, contact, scent and style are only a few methods to evoke recollections and feelings.
- Studying their life tales, pursuits, and preferences by utilizing images, reminiscence packing containers, and storytelling. Have a good time small moments- eye contact , a smile, and a shared chuckle.
- Provide reassurance and kindness, particularly throughout moments of confusion or nervousness.
SHN: In the event you might change one factor about cognitive care within the reminiscence care, senior housing & senior dwelling trade, what wouldn’t it be?
Krueger: Serving to household and caregivers to know and take the time to interact with residents.
SHN: In the event you had a crystal ball, what do you assume will most influence your capability to offer cognitive care within the reminiscence care, senior housing & senior dwelling trade within the subsequent 5 years?
Krueger: Utilizing extra know-how.
SHN: In the event you might describe cognitive care within the reminiscence care, senior housing & senior dwelling trade in a single phrase, what wouldn’t it be and why?
Krueger: Alternative. We nonetheless have a number of work to do when it comes to schooling with households and caregivers.
SHN: What’s been the largest lesson you could have realized all through your profession?
Krueger: A resident could not keep in mind your title or the small print of your go to, however they may keep in mind the way you made them really feel. Connections occur in moments, not at all times by phrases.
SHN: In the event you might give your self recommendation on the primary day within the reminiscence care, senior housing & senior dwelling trade, what wouldn’t it be and why?
Krueger: Each individual nonetheless has a narrative, even when they’ll’t inform it the best way they used to. Studying to pay attention together with your coronary heart, not simply your ears, can reveal a lot.
SHN: In your opinion, what qualities ought to all Reminiscence Care Innovation Award winners possess?
Krueger: Listed below are the qualities all Reminiscence Care Innovation Award winners ought to possess:
- They need to embody a mix of compassion, creativity, and management
- Prioritize dignity, autonomy, and pleasure for residents
- Encourage groups by empathy, persistence, and kindness
- Introduce artistic options – whether or not by know-how, programming, or design that enhance the standard of life and supply function
- Be a champion for consciousness and understanding of memory-related situations
- Interact households, staff members, and residents in determination making
- Constantly be taught, enhance and innovate
