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WHO WE ARE
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Optimal Life Designs in Dementia Care specializes in providing cutting-edge
continuing education programs and resource materials based on a person-centered and relationship-based philsophy.
We invite you to peruse the Educational Programs we offer, discover WHAT REALLY
MATTERS in dementia care, and to explore these essential elements of innovative and optimal care practices:
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• Establish relationships which nurture the individuality
 of each person in one’s care.
• Honor individual beliefs, actions and forms of
expression without judgment.
• Recognize and cultivate strengths while addressing
specific needs of each individual.
• Encourage adaptive forms of communication,
creativity and meaningful occupation.
• Support the continuity of essential being and human spirit
through all phases of living with dementia.
• Incorporate alternatives approaches that support positive
changes in current service culture.
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We ‘practice what we preach’ in conceptualizing educational programs,
live demonstrations and models of care. Emergent and evidence-based dementia
care practices serve as the basis for our work.
Optimal Life Designs in Dementia Care is supported entirely by program registration
and consulting fees, publication sales, corporate and private donations.
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Why Do We Open Our Website with the Subjective Experience
of Living with Dementia?
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Each of us has inherent attributes, abilities, talents and interests that evolve over a life
time of experiences and accomplishments. They help to share the views we form about
ourselves and relationships we have with others. We define ourselves in part by our
relationships and essential connection with others and seek understanding, acceptance
and respect. These anchors can become unstable with the onset and experience of
living with progressive cognitive loss.
Our efforts to assist individuals in their journey of living with dementia are to begin
by seeking to understand what this personal experience means to each of them and
their primary partners in life. Without this important context to guide our action,
we can err by making assumptions about things that matter most to them and take way
opportunities for communication, decision-making and to find meaning in doing things
they can and wish to do themselves. This is the foundation of Optimal Life Designs
in Dementia Care. It is the reason we introduce our website, educational programs and
services through the eyes, hands and creative works of many people who will be our
guides to introducing health care professionals to emerging areas of research and
optimal practices in dementia care.
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Anne Robinson, Roxanne Chang & Jayne Yatczak
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Anne Robinson, MA has spent the past twenty-seven years working as an educator,
consultant, trainer and author with people with dementia and their families. She has been
involved in two innovative residential dementia demonstration projects – Wesley Hall
and Huron Woods. Formerly she founded and directed the Alzheimer’s Education
Program at Eastern Michigan University for seventeen years. While there, Anne and
her colleagues created an 18 credit hour graduate certificate program in dementia care
for healthcare professionals. She is one of the authors of the popular handbook
Understanding Difficult Behaviors in Alzheimer’s Disease and co-editor of the training
curriculum Making Meaningful Connections with Persons with Dementia. Anne is a
frequent presenter at national and international conferences. She consults widely with
organizations interested in implementing successful culture change. More recently Anne
has undertaken development work in the area of empathy training in dementia care
practice and group work for persons with cognitive impairment.
Roxanne Chang, JD, MS LLP is an attorney specializing in elder law. and a limited
licensed psychologist. She has a solo practice in Plymouth, Michigan. Roxanne is also
the Dementia Specialist Consultant for Optimal Life Designs in Dementia Care. She is
currently a council member of the Elder Law and Advocacy Section of the State Bar of
Michigan, and a member of the Michigan Dementia Coalition.
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