Working With Community Partners Connections in Care: Understanding Dementia and Beyond
Welcome to Connections in Care: Understanding Dementia and Beyond – Building Trust, Safety, and Comfort for People with Complex Needs. In this course, you’ll hear directly from people living with dementia and co-occurring conditions as they share their experiences, challenges, and what truly helps them feel respected and supported. Their voices will guide you as you learn simple, practical strategies to build stronger, more compassionate relationships in care.
This course is designed to help you provide care that goes beyond daily tasks and focuses on connection, dignity, and trust. Through real stories, short videos, handouts, and guided reflections, you will explore:
- Seeing the whole person beyond a diagnosis
- Creating physical and emotional safety
- Understanding behavior as communication
- Using empathy, patience, and presence in every interaction
- Practicing supportive body language with the SOFTEN approach
- Bringing all the skills together through real-life scenarios
You will also complete a Pre-Test, five short quizzes, and a Post-Test to support your learning. By the end of this course, you’ll feel more confident in your ability to connect with people living with dementia and other health conditions, and to provide care that feels safe, respectful, and truly human.
Connections in Care: Understanding Dementia and Beyond helps you build stronger, more compassionate relationships by learning how to support people living with dementia and other health conditions with trust, safety, and respect.
Erin M. Wallace
Erin M. Wallace is the Director of Quality Assurance and Education at the Michigan Assisted Living Association, a role she has held since March 2024. With more than 20 years of leadership experience in program development, implementation, and team management, Erin has dedicated her career to strengthening the systems and people who provide daily care to others.
She brings extensive expertise in dementia care, program evaluation, and fiscal and grant management, having overseen multimillion-dollar initiatives that serve at-risk populations statewide. Erin’s work has consistently focused on building resiliency, advancing education, and supporting professionals and families caring for individuals with neurocognitive impairments.
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What People Are Saying
Very informational and I really enjoyed the real-life scenes to give the viewer a better understanding of the techniques being used."
