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

Baby Massage has been around for centuries, used in cultures throughout the world. It is now firmly re-establishing itself in the west, as the benefits of massage are being rediscovered by parents & health professionals alike: backed up by scientific research. Baby Massage is a simple skill that is easy to learn, taking just a little time and effort. An hour per week for 3-6 weeks and usually most parents & babies are experiencing some of the many benefits of massage. For Health Care Professionals, Therapists & Nursery Nurses, learning to teach baby massage is wonderful skill to have to support parents through this exciting, yet sometimes challenging, period in their lives as they get to know & understand their babies. https://www.babymassage.org.uk/

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

https://musicfordementia.org.uk/about/team-members/

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

PainChek® uses AI, facial recognition and smartphone technology to intelligently automate the pain assessment process at the point of care.

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.

www.dancenetworkassociation.org.uk