Teepa Snow

Teepa Snow is an American dementia care specialist and an occupation therapist. She is a fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association. In 2007, Teepa Snow founded a Positive Approach to Care (PAC), a dementia care company. Her ‘Snow Approach’ methods, based on an understanding brain functions, were developed during her early career and have been subsequently introduced to others globally through training events and workshops. Teepa is collaborating to improve dementia care in over thirty countries. She has delivered training courses in person in the US, Canada, Australia, Poland and the UK.

Sandra Blades

In 2024, Teepa visited the UK and a colleague of mine sent me an invitation to one of her events in the Northeast of England. The event was being hosted by the local hospital trust and was held at a hotel venue. I had never heard of Teepa Snow before this event, but my colleague had read Teepa’s books and was impressed by her training model for dementia care.

My colleague works with dementia clients in the community and their carers, be they husbands, wives, sons, daughters or other family members. She had arranged for the carers to attend the course along with health and social care professionals. I accepted the invitation to attend the training course and completed my on-line course information. 

On the day I turned up to the course with my toothbrush, comb and cardigan as the joining instructions stated. Teepa was welcoming, professional and enthusiastic. She introduced her team and local healthcare professionals who had completed her train the trainer course.

We worked in pairs during the day and I was allocated to work with a lady I was acquainted with but I didn’t know well. Teepa and her team took us through her positive approach with examples and involvement through exercises to reflect dressing (the cardigan) and personal hygiene (the toothbrush and comb). Explaining that the different stages of dementia need different approaches, Teepa identified changes to the brain during the dementia journey that alter behaviour and function. I did find it interesting and learnt about the different parts and function of the brain. Working with our training partner at the end of the day, we had to write on our name card taking into account the things we had learnt during the day and whether we thought our partner was a risk taker or risk adverse. I wrote that my partner was a risk taker and she wrote on my card that I was risk adverse. She had got it so right.

Initially, I was sceptical about the Snow Approach as I had worked as a general nurse on a high dependency care home unit for clients with dementia. The Snow Approach course enabled me to reflect on my working practices. Like many nurses working in a busy environment, often with staff shortages, I was perhaps more task orientated and I now realise this wasn’t always the best approach. As a general nurse, my initial training didn’t cover any aspect of mental health training although I had completed basic dementia training as part of my CPD.

Teepa Snow’s training highlighted to me that it wasn’t always possible to solve an immediate or perceived problem when dealing with different people who may be at different stages of dementia. On reflection, sometimes I needed to step back, to respond but not react, and to have a flexible plan. In other words, to ‘go with the flow’ and in hindsight, to stop doing what doesn’t work.

A more balanced approach would have been to take time in care planning and get to know the person and their family situation, their life journey and personality and identify the most important things to them. In Teepa’s words, “Ten minutes of good interaction is so much better than an hour of misery”.

Dementia is a progressive disease and always changing. Each person is precious, valuable and unique and given the right care can live positively with dementia. I would encourage anyone to check out the Teepa Snow approach - The Positive Approach to Care.

Jo Roche

I had been aware of Teepa Snow and her ‘Positive Approach to Care’ (PAC) for a few years, and when I heard she was touring the UK I was really keen to try and attend a session. Luckily she had sessions planned locally to my area of work, and so through work a small number of us were able to get funded spaces to attend.

I think the venue was slightly different to the rooms that usually host Teepa’s sessions, as it was a lecture theatre layout room rather than tables supporting group work. We weren’t asked to take any items with us for the session, which was different to other sessions on the UK tour.

As soon as the session started it was a very interactive session, and the Teepa Snow team would act out scenarios at the front of the room, which the audience would then try between pairs with the person sat next to us. The team demonstrated communication techniques, using scenarios that are very common in the acute healthcare setting. The changes in communication that were suggested were simple changes, but you could see how they would improve communication when caring for a person living with dementia.

The team also spoke about supporting positive risk taking for people with dementia. To demonstrate this at one point Teepa climbed up onto the desks in the lecture theatre and walked up them as if using them as stairs, with the audience offering just enough support that Teepa was safe but continued as independently as possible. 

Teepa and her team were extremely knowledgeable, but also so friendly and really helpful with suggestions when we were acting out scenarios. The passion they have for creating a ‘Positive Approach to Care’ for people living with dementia was palpable from the moment you arrived on site and was welcomed to the session.

After the session a colleague and I reflected on how we could take back what we had learnt to the acute hospital environment. We agreed that the skills we had learnt would have to be adapted slightly to be utilised in the hospital setting, and we also agreed that the acute healthcare setting has a long way to go to fully support people living with dementia in the way that Teepa and her team promote. 

I would 100% recommend attending a Teepa Snow session to anyone who was offered the opportunity and is interested in supporting people living with dementia.