Brenner Pathways provides a new vision for person-centered care giving. Our goal is to make hope possible for people living with dementia and for those who care for them. Our dementia care program uses both the method and the philosophy of Dr. Maria Montessori.

What is the Montessori Method?

This method teaches us to use the procedural memory system (muscle memory) as that tends to be less affected by dementia. To this end, we put something meaningful in a person’s hands. This might be something from nature, a cup of snow, a flower, an autumn leaf. Or it might be something that the person loved, a baseball glove for a big fan of the game or some swatches of fabric for a seamstress. This simple act is a prompt to bring forth memories, conversations and engagement.  

Using the arts to connect

We use all of the arts to further promote engagement: painting, singing, drum circles, poetry reading and writing community poems, and elder reading circles. Our reading circles are unique in that we read aloud the stories told to us by people living with dementia. These are often just snapshots of a brief moment in someone’s life, but the stories really resonate with the elders reading them. We also create video diaries, filming someone interacting with a meaningful object and the memories and stories that are brought forth. We show these videos to the people who made them and film their reaction to their own videos.

Easing the dementia journey

The Montessori philosophy is strength based. We look for the remaining strengths and skills of people living with dementia. We consider dementia (of all types) to be a condition that needs assistance. With this in mind, we create ramps to ease the dementia journey for both those with dementia and those who care for them. When setting up exercises and activities we always invite people to join us, we never insist. We follow the lead of the people with whom we are working. Our goal is to find the person still there inside, to engage them and to create hope and joy for those living with dementia and the people who love and care for them.