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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBut at a restaurant, she said, \u201cWhen the waiter would come, my dad would nudge me and say, \u2018Order in Spanish\u2019\u2026 So the waiter never really knew what language to approach the table with!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does the ability to speak three languages have to do with dementia care? For Gini, it\u2019s what makes her Living Active Dementia coaching and training business unique. Gini\u2019s health care education began when she\u00a0obtained a bachelor\u2019s degree in recreational therapy at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. She points out that recreational therapy is very wellness-focused in five areas: physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and occupational.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When she entered the health care profession over 20 years ago, Gini also began to encounter patients with dementia. The nurses at one skilled care facility where she worked warned her that a particular male patient was aggressive or might curse at her. Gini said she entered the patient\u2019s room and began talking with him. She found out that the man was confused and didn\u2019t know why he was in the facility and why doctors and nurses seemed to be forcing treatments he didn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI kind of just acknowledged and validated what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That conversation led Gini to a critical discovery in working with patients with dementia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s all about the person you\u2019re talking to \u2014 where they are at, what they understand,\u201d Gini explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said it\u2019s less about getting a patient to do something and more about getting to know them and understanding where they need help. Gini embarked on educating herself in the field in order to bring a level of compassionate care and understanding to patients and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gini is now a certified dementia practitioner and a certified trainer. As Gini grew her skills, her father pointed out that the rescue squad he volunteered for had no training to handle dementia patients. That led Gini to become a first-responder trainer, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gini said her mission is \u201cto share knowledge about dementia with those in the community through interactive and fun training.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides training other professionals, the family group Gini finds herself working with the most is known as the \u201csandwich generation.\u201d The sandwich generation represents families where the parents have young children at home but also bring in one or both of their parents (the childrens\u2019 grandparents) to live with them because they cannot live independently. Gini said this can create a lot of generational stress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gini conducts a home safety assessment where the family can see changes they may need to make to the physical house for fall prevention, accessibility, and cooking safety. For the caregivers, Gini\u00a0offers support services to help navigate doctor\u2019s appointments, power of attorney arrangements, living wills, and other next-step directives that may come into play. In addition, she gets the person needing care involved in fun and sometimes goofy activities and games that bring mental and physical stimulation with the goal of staying independent longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When dementia sets in, causing an aging parent to need more direct care, Gini steps in to help families become better care providers and aid them in supporting the person with dementia. Gini offers classes on topics such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease versus dementia, aging sensitivity training, communication basics, and changes with aging. She presents to social workers, case workers, first responders, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy goal is the quality of life. We need to make their lives as better \u2014 as happy \u2014 as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gini is well on her way to doing just that. GN <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" VIRGINIA \u201cGINI\u201d Simmons grew up in Goode and graduated from Jefferson Forest High School. If those words were the sum of her story, her life could be considered typical for the Lynchburg area \u2014 but Gini\u2019s life is far more unique. Gini\u2019s father is British, and her mother is German. Both parents moved to Lynchburg […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":22059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lynchburg-va\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/07\/2-3-1024x683.png\")
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