SOULcial Salute – July 2025
Barbara Short, CDP®, Reflections Director – Orchards of Minnetonka, Minnetonka MN
Education or Dementia Care: It’s All About Engagement
Barb Short’s career in serving older adults in dementia began barely a decade ago. After 30 years in education. These two professions may seem miles apart at first glance. However, both involve connecting, directing, redirecting, listening to, and leading people.
All those skills are employed with people at any age in helping them acquire, and share knowledge, awareness and purpose. Applying these skills is all about engagement and wanting to help make a difference.
Personal And Professional Lives Intersect
Barb began in primary education in Illinois and then Wisconsin. Her career then evolved to post-secondary instruction. That is what brought her to Minneapolis. After a few years here, in about 2016, Barb’s parents’ cognitive decline led her to move them close to her. This allowed her to be with them throughout her mom’s dementia journey.
Caring For Parents Was an Epiphany Professionally
Being with her parents through their decline revealed the cornerstones of Barb’s upbringing.
Despite being an only child herself, her parents both were from large families. These families all practiced the tradition of respecting their elders. That family legacy became lived experience for Barb as she watched both her folks care for their parents in their waning years.
Barb continued living this tradition by caring for her parents when their time came. Doing so made it clear that it is the kind of work she wanted for the rest of her work life.
Transferable Skills
Of all the tasks involved in Barb’s role that call on her management skills, it is her educational skills that drive the key parts of her work. Those are learning and teaching.
Barb has done a lot of studying and learning about dementia and how to help others cope and manage. She has earned her Certified Dementia Practitioner® certificate. The teaching Barb does serves both staff and residents. She instructs staff in dementia care to help them better serve residents.
Barb more broadly serves residents and their families in conducting ongoing support groups. This is where her teaching skills really deliver. She is practiced in meeting residents where they are at and engaging them wherever that is. Barb also guides family members in learning about caregiving for their loved ones.
Dementia Is Not The End
Families learn that dementia is not the end. There is still a lot of living to do. They just have to adjust. There are ways to help their loved ones, and themselves, find what IS still there and how to enjoy and celebrate it.
Moments of clarity and lucidity are gifts that can be discovered as much as randomly caught. Barb’s support group work helps families learn about dementia and the practices of meeting the person where they are and going with it rather than redirecting them to “reality”.
Silver Linings of Learning How To Cope
Barb helped one daughter “go with it” and eventually accept being seen as her mom’s cousin rather than daughter. Despite the grief of being “off” of reality, the daughter hung in there and eventually began hearing things about her mom’s growing up that she never knew before, and was never privy to as daughter.
While that is not perfect, it is far more rewarding than fighting to align loved ones with “reality”.
It’s The Community Dinners.
On the lighter side, all the other duties Barb handles combine to create a vibrant, engaging, fun and purposeful setting for all. From the usual activities and events to the weekly outings on the bus with Barb who is the driver! They go absolutely everywhere – to fishing expeditions in Eden Prairie, weekly singalongs (Barb is the musician!) and Arboretum walks in Chaska,. Then there are the newsletter and calendars. It all culminates a few times a year in the Community Dinners.
The Community Dinners include all residents and their families. The place is packed, and everyone looks forward to them and it is enjoyed by all. It is proof positive that this is not the end!