Georgia teams up with Virtual Dementia Tour

The state of Georgia is teaming up with Second Wind Dreams, Inc. to increase awareness and understanding of dementia through training sessions in 169 nursing homes across the state.

Second Wind Dreams has been awarded $2.9 million in Civil Money Penalty (CMP) funds from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide experiential training sessions for a three-year period using the company’s Virtual Dementia Tour, a simulation program that allows people to experience the sensory impediments, vision loss, imbalance and confusion that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

A trainer who is certified by Second Wind Dreams will conduct the program and competency evaluations at each nursing home.

P.K. Beville, PhD, the founder of Second Wind Dreams and inventor of the Virtual Dementia Tour, is a psychologist specializing in geriatric care and a leading expert in dementia and aging issues. She believes that until we can experience what it might be like to have dementia, we are unable to provide person-centered care. “The plight of those living with dementia is a lonely one and it takes the ability to identify with their needs from their perspective to develop empathy and quality care,” she says in a release announcing the grant.

More than 2 million people in 17 countries have experienced the Virtual Dementia Tour.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.