The Best Friends Staff: Learning to Deliver Exceptional Dementia Care

This updated edition of the bestselling book addresses today’s intense pressures in staffing and retention. It shows vividly how the Best Friends™ approach to dementia care improves quality of life not only for persons with memory loss but also for the staff providing care. Give the staff the skills and satisfaction to keep them on the job. Includes: Stories from successful dementia programs, chapter-by-chapter toolkits of training techniques and learning exercises, ways to support and retain staff, and actionable ideas to improve the care culture.

Virginia Bell, M.S.W., has lectured widely on Alzheimer’s disease at national and international conferences, speaking at 11 National Education Conferences of the Alzheimer’s Association and lecturing at the last 16 conferences of Alzheimer’s Disease International. She has published journal articles and book chapters, notably in Dementia Care: Patient, Family and Community (John Hopkins, 1989).

Many of her articles have been reprinted numerous times: “The Alzheimer’s Disease Bill of Rights” (1994), “The Other Face of Alzheimer’s Disease” (1999) and “Spirituality and the Person with Dementia” (2001), co-authored with David Troxel and published in the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and in Alzheimer’s Care Quarterly. She has also co-authored four books with David Troxel, most notably The Best Friends Approach to Dementia Care.

Virginia is currently the Program Consultant for the Greater Kentucky and Southern Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. She received her M.S.W. from the University of Kentucky in 1982.

David Troxel, M.P.H., has become nationally and internationally known for his writing and teaching in the fields of Alzheimer’s disease and long-term care. He has co-authored four influential books (most notably, The Best Friends Approach to Dementia Care) on Alzheimer’s care as well as numerous articles relating to Alzheimer’s disease care and staff development and training.

His latest book on activities was published in 2004. David received his Master’s Degree in Public Health from UMDNJ, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (formerly Rutgers Medical School) in 1986.

David is a past Executive Board member of the American Public Health Association and is a member of the Ethics Advisory Panel for the United States Alzheimer’s Association. He currently serves as a Program Consultant to the Alzheimer’s Association California Central Coast Chapter in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties.

With a long history of supporting Best Friends™ approaches in dementia care, Tonya Cox, M.S.W., LNHA, currently ensures that training and implementation of Best Friends™ practices are maintained across all care settings for the regional Kentucky-based operator Christian Care Communities in her role as Vice President of Operations. She notably blended the Best Friends approach into a Green House® site as the former Executive Director for The Homeplace at Midway. And before that was Director of Community Based Services for Christian Care, which included overseeing the original Best Friends™ Adult Day Center in Lexington, Kentucky. For more than 15 years Tonya has been developing programs and services for persons with dementia and their caregivers, including working on national curriculum development for professional caregivers in various care settings and serving as Vice President for Mission and Service for the Greater Kentucky/Southern Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Tonya presents locally and nationally on activity programming and dementia care. She is a co-author on two of the Best Friends™ books (The Best Friends Book of Alzheimer’s Activities, Volume One and Volume Two) and contributed to The Best Friends Approach to Dementia Care, Second Edition, with Virginia Bell and David Troxel. She has served as co-chair of the Kentucky Alzheimer’s Disease Advisory Council and is a practicum supervisor for both the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville Kent School of Social Work. Tonya is also Adjunct Professor at Midway University in their Health Care Administration Program.