Our Partners
Our Mission
Our mission is to nurture respect, dignity and well-being in the lives of older adults living with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (ADRD) and their caregivers by advancing education in the Validation method.
VTI’s vision for the future is that every caregiver and older adult experiencing age-related, cognitive decline will feel the joy and love of meaningful communication

Naomi Feil, Founder
Naomi Feil is the developer of Validation. She was born in Munich in 1932, and grew up in the Montefiore Home for the Aged in Cleveland Ohio, where her father was the administrator and her mother, the head of the Social Service Department. This unique background gave her insight into the world of the elderly. They were her neighbors and her friends growing up.
After graduating with a Master’s degree in Social Work from Columbia University in New York, she began working with the elderly. Between 1963 and 1980 Naomi developed Validation as a response to her dissatisfaction with traditional methods of working with the severely disoriented old-old people who were her clients.
In 1982 she published her first book, Validation: The Feil Method. Her second book, The Validation Breakthrough, was first published in 1993. Feil and her husband have made many films and videos about aging and Validation. Since the mid-1970s, Feil has done over 900 workshops in the United States and Canada, plus almost 1000 workshops in Europe and Asia.
Vicki de Klerk-Rubin, Executive Director
Vicki oversees organizational operations and is a Validation Master. She lives in The Hague, The Netherlands. She has a BFA from Boston University, an MBA from Fordham University and did her nursing degree at Higher Technical School of Amsterdam.
Together with her mother, Naomi Feil, she revised the books, Validation: the Feil Method and The Validation Breakthrough. She authored Validation Techniques for Dementia Care: the Family Guide to Improving Communication and a new workbook: Communicate with older adults with cognitive decline: Validation for First Responders.
Since 1989, Vicki has given Validation workshops, lectures and training programs in Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United States. She has also worked in nursing home facilities in Amsterdam, leading Validation groups and training staff. Vicki is proud of her contributions to the development of Validation certification levels, curricula, the VTI quality standards, guidelines, and the Authorized Validation Organization (AVO) structure for offering training around the world.

Scottish School of Child & Baby Massage
Mindsong
namaste submission
www.mindsong.org.uk
University of Worcester
The Association for Dementia Studies is an active research and education centre at the University of Worcester
https://www.worcester.ac.uk/about/academic-schools/school-of-allied-health-and-community/allied-health-research/association-for-dementia-studies/home.aspx
University of Lancaster
Professor Catherine Walshe, Professor of Palliative Care and Co-Director of the International Observatory on End of Life Care, part of the Division of Health Research at Lancaster University, said: “People with advanced dementia living in care homes sometimes spend long hours alone in their rooms, and care home staff can find it hard to engage them with the day to day activities in the care home. Namaste Care provides a structured way of engaging with people with advanced dementia, with indications that this increases social engagement and promotes greater calm.”
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/how-the-namaste-care-programme-could-improve-the-lives-of-people-with-advanced-dementia
Memory Bridge
Memory Bridge is a growing community around the world committed to being companions of people with dementia. Learn more in our new free webinar series.
Memory Bridge

Music for Dementia- Gracce meadows word doc
Care Vision
www.carevisioncms.com
Care Vision is a cloud based care home management system, centred around carers and the people they look after.
Pain chek
Dance Network Association
Dancing with DNA provides opportunities for people to improve their confidence and physical well-being, nurtures creativity and independent thinking and enhances friendships through social interaction.
5 Ironmans Beat Alzheimer’s

Hassan Fadli
FounderHassan Fadli
Founder

Hassan started his journey as a caregiver in 2018 when his father was diagnosed with dementia, facing struggles which inspired him to found 5IBA to raise awareness, promote education and inspire research for Alzheimer’s across Europe. He will be talking at the conference on the destigmatization of dementia and empowering communities toward better care practices.
Expressive Arts Therapy Association of Hong Kong

Vennus Ho Yuen-wai
Registered Arts TherapistVennus Ho Yuen-wai
Registered Arts Therapist

Specializing in gerontology, palliative care, and expressive arts therapy, Vennus leads interdisciplinary teams in developing innovative elderly care services. As a Namaste Care International Champion, Vennus has spearheaded projects focusing on spiritual end-of-life care featuring Namaste Care for individuals with terminal illnesses living in nursing homes and community through the collective effort of spiritual care teams and compassionate connectors.
Lancaster University

Serena Salvi
Research Associate (In-Touch)Serena Salvi
Research Associate (In-Touch)

Serena is a Research Associate at Lancaster University’s Department of Health and Research. Currently, she is involved in a European-led project focusing on non-pharmacological palliative care interventions for people with advanced dementia living in care homes. She holds a MSc in Developmental Psychology and a PhD in Behavioural Economics.
Medway NHS Hospital

Emily Brown
Namaste PractitionerEmily Brown
Namaste Practitioner

Emily Brown is the Namaste Practitioner at Medway NHS Hospital in Kent, UK. She is very honoured to do what she does and see a wide variety of patients – from people living with dementia, to patients at the end of their life and palliative patients. Emily first met Joyce in 2013 where she taught her the magic of Namaste Care and decided, with the support from the end-of-life team to bring it to Medway NHS Hospital.
Memory Bridge

Michael Verde
PresidentMichael Verde
President

Michael is an author, documentary maker, motivational speaker, and the founder of Memory Bridge, a multiple-award-winning international non-profit dedicated to ending the emotional isolation of people with dementia. He has a MA in literary studies, in theology, and is now completing his dissertation for his PhD, focusing on the area of empathic communication.
NCI

Hanneke Smaling
Associate DirectorHanneke Smaling
Associate Director

Hanneke has a background in psychology. After her PhD, she worked at the Amsterdam UMC on a study on the effect of Namaste Care on people with dementia and their relatives. Her research is focused on improving the quality of life of people with cognitive impairments in long-term care, in particular dementia and intellectual disability. She investigates how technology can be used to enhance quality of life and care.

Rishi Jawaheer
DirectorRishi Jawaheer
Director

Rishi’s parents came from overseas to the UK in the 1970s, training as mental health nurses before becoming nursing managers at the NHS. They opened their first dementia care home in the 1980s, which Rishi grew up in. He eventually took over as Director for the Jawa Group and has now been for over 12 years. He has been a pioneer in the field of care management software, with the launch of Care Vision – an innovative cloud-based app for use in care home settings.

Joyce Simard
Founder & Honorary ChairJoyce Simard
Founder & Honorary Chair

Joyce has been in the long-term care industry since 1978, working with large healthcare organisations to provide services for nursing facilities and assisted living communities. She is recognised for developing innovative programs for people with all levels of memory loss. Joyce has authored numerous books, articles and chapters on dementia-related issues and is widely in demand as a speaker throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia.
the Singapore Institute of Technology

Martin Ang Seng Hock
LecturerMartin Ang Seng Hock
Lecturer

Dr. Martin is a Healthcare leader in Singapore with a background spanning many kinds of care. He has a particular passion for Namaste Care, as a person-centred approach for individuals with advanced dementia or approaching end of life. He remains deeply committed to advancing nursing education and practice through research, innovation, and person-centred care.
the University of Tasmania

Sara Karacsony
Senior Lecturer in NursingSara Karacsony
Senior Lecturer in Nursing

Dr. Sara has a clinical background in palliative care across specialist, community and acute palliative and supportive care services. Sara joined the project team on the first Australian-funded research study into the benefits of the multisensory, psychosocial Namaste Care program for people living with advanced dementia in Residential Aged Care Facilities. She continues to promote the program’s philosophy
University College Cork

Nicola Cornally
Vice Dean of Research and InnovationNicola Cornally
Vice Dean of Research and Innovation

A Registered General Nurse with a PhD in Medicine and Health, Nicola has extensive clinical and academic expertise in dementia palliative care, end-of-life planning, and healthcare design. She currently coordinates the In-Touch Horizon Europe project, a multinational cluster randomized controlled trial across seven EU countries, evaluating a non-pharmacological palliative care intervention aimed at improving comfort and quality of life for people with advanced dementia in care homes.