The Best Friends™ approach to dementia care is among the most well-known and highly regarded humanistic approaches to providing care for people with dementia. Wherever you are in your adoption of the Best Friends approach, Health Professions Press can provide you with a training option to help you take the next step in your mastery of this relationship-based model of caring. Introductory, specialized, and advanced trainings are available for you.

Best Friends is a trademarked program of dementia care that is used across the United States and internationally. It is reputed for its effectiveness and has been adopted in a wide variety of settings providing memory care.

THE BEST FRIENDS™ LEARNING PROCESS

Implementation and mastery of the Best Friends approach can be accomplished in simple stages. Here’s how:

Step 1:

Become familiar with the Best Friends model of care and its core concepts from one or more of the books written by developers Virginia Bell and David Troxel and their colleagues.

Step 2:

Introduce everyone in your care organization to the life-affirming approach to memory care with one or more Introductory or Specialized Training options. The Best Friends approach is a care culture that involves everyone—so include maintenance personnel, food service staff, direct care staff, nurses, volunteers, and administrators. Help every staff member understand the goals and methods of this relationship-centered approach to dementia care so they can envision their own role in its implementation.

Step 3:

Identify the staff in your organization you would like to serve as trainers and advocates of the Best Friends approach for your employees. Send them to a Best Friends Approach Master Trainer Institute or arrange for an On-Site Training for them to become Best Friends−Certified Master Trainers (BF-CMTs). For each BF-CMT, earn a Best Friends Environment designation for one community in your organization. Having Master Trainers in your organization publicly proclaims your commitment to providing the highest quality care to the people living with memory loss in your communities. Give the families counting on you another important reason to trust your services.