“People with dementia may have something important to teach the rest of humankind. If we make the venture one of genuine and open engagement, we will learn a great deal about ourselves“ – Professor Tom Kitwood, author of the book: Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First
Welcome to Dementia Behavior Consulting
West Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Eilon Caspi Ph.D.
Contact Information: eiloncaspi@gmail.com
Eilon Caspi, B.S.W. M.A. Ph.D. is a Gerontologist and Dementia Behavior Specialist. He worked his entire adult life in the aging field, starting as a nurse aide in 1994 in a nursing home where his grandfather lived. Both of his grandmothers had dementia in the final years of their lives. Throughout the last 20 years he worked with or on behalf of people living with dementia and their family care partners as well with care staff and other professionals who provide support and care to these individuals in the community and long-term care homes (such as nursing homes and assisted living residences).
Eilon is the founder, owner, and director of Dementia Behavior Consulting LLC. He founded the company in 2015 to addresses one of the most challenging but largely overlooked and underfunded aspects of working with, supporting, and caring for people living with dementia: Distressing and harmful behavioral expressions of unmet human needs and frustrations.
Dementia Behavior Consulting LLC offers an array of services related to prevention of various forms of behavioral expressions (such as those commonly labeled “aggressive”) and improvement of psychological well being of people living with dementia in the community and long-term care homes.
You are invited to view a description of these services under the tab “Services Offered.” For a brief overview of the company, see this newspaper article:
O’loughlin, M. (December 2017 Issue). Dementia behavior consultant is carving his own niche. Messenger: Longfellow / Nokomis, Minnesota.
https://tinyurl.com/ybun8j2a
The quality of care provided to people living with dementia can only be as good as the quality of support and education provided to family and professional care partners.
Dementia Behavior Consulting places high priority on equipping care partners with evidence-based knowledge and skills that empower and enable them to provide effective person-directed, dignified, and safe care to these individuals.
In line with experts’ consensus in the U.S. and Europe, the primary focus of Dementia Behavior Consulting is on personalized psychosocial approaches and strategies (not pharmacological treatments such as antipsychotic medications). These expensive medications have been shown in research studies to bring modest positive effects to only a small subgroup of individuals with dementia and they often cause adverse and serious side effects. Some of these antipsychotic medications were issued a U.S. FDA Black Box warning due to increased risk of stroke and death when used by people with dementia.
My hope is that you will find the material contained in this website useful in your daily efforts to live well with dementia (if you are a person living with cognitive impairment or dementia) or in your efforts to support and care for a person or a group of people living with dementia in ways that enable them to realize their human right to experience the highest practical psychological well-being and preserve their dignity (if you are a family or professional care partner).
Eilon’s New Book!
Caspi, E. (October 2021). Understanding and preventing harmful interactions between residents with dementia. Health Professions Press.
Understanding and Preventing Harmful Interactions Between Residents with Dementia
