SPECAL®

Pioneering dementia education in North America

SPECAL® (pronounced “speckle”) is a unique, evidence-based, simple, counter-intuitive dementia management method that can be learned and used by anyone involved in the care of a person with dementia. SPECAL® was developed in the UK by the Contented Dementia Trust over the past 30+ years ago, and introduced in North America 15 years ago. SPECAL® is highly practical and effective. It gives those in caregiving roles, the why, what, and how to promote lifelong well-being for the person living with dementia. SPECAL® is a family-led model which has demonstrated improved empathy, harmony, and resilience for care partners. SPECAL® is tailor-made for the condition of dementia, whatever the cause.

Like other approaches rooted in person-directed or relationship-based care models, SPECAL® places the well-being of the person with dementia at the center of care.

Unlike other approaches, an understanding of medical terminology, knowledge of specific dementia diagnosis, and a grasp on brain pathophysiology are not required in order to apply the practical strategies SPECAL® teaches.

Use of the SPECAL® method can bring about immediate and sustainable improvements in the quality of life of the person with dementia and everyone involved in care. For the purposes of managing the condition, SPECAL® treats dementia as a simple disability and works positively with it, rather than trying to ignore or defeat itt

Dementia Together's Approach

At Dementia Together, we operate and thrive under our three pillars: Education, Enrichment, and Hope.

All of our education is SPECAL®-led taught by licensed SPECAL® coaches and practitioners who are credentialed by the Contented Dementia Trust.

Our life enrichment opportunities are facilitated by SPECAL®-informed staff and volunteers.

The practical hope we get to share with our participants is SPECAL®-inspired as we see the life-changing difference SPECAL® makes for those who learn and apply it.

New SPECAL® coaches and practitioners are in training here in Northern Colorado, and Dementia Together is honored to provide mentorship to them so we can better keep up with the requests for services in the months and years ahead as word is spread about the tangible hope that SPECAL® provides.

Creating and sustaining well-being become possible by understanding dementia through the framework of a simple and highly effective way of explaining how it feels to experience dementia, using the analogy of the SPECAL® Photograph Album. We conduct ongoing evidence-based research with Colorado State University on the impact of using SPECAL® which has shown, thus far, to significantly decrease stress for care partners while increasing their ability to identify the positive aspects of caregiving.  Our findings are consistent with the UK research from King’s College London which indicates the SPECAL Method boosts empathy, harmony, and resilience.

SPECAL® invites us to listen to and learn from the expert. The SPECAL® Photograph Album leads to a set of guiding principles and a practical, positive approach to the management of dementia – the SPECAL® method.    Without understanding of the photograph album analogy, the 3 Golden Rules may be misunderstood as limiting choice when in reality, they do the exact opposite.

The 3 Golden Rules of SPECAL®

Don't Ask Direct Questions

The recent facts may not have been stored.

Listen to the Expert

The person living with dementia is the expert. Their questions and phrases are highly significant.

Don't Contradict

Do not argue with the facts they use to make sense of what is happening.

By listening to the expert and understanding what the disability of no longer storing recent facts efficiently actually feels like, we can stop using condescending, patronizing verbiage such as “white lies, therapeutic fibbing, or creative deception” that are all too common in dementia care.  At Dementia Together, we have coined the terms humble deferral® and compassionate deferral® to replace the unnecessarily negative terms often used in dementia care when SPECAL® principles are not understood. When SPECAL® principles are understood, it becomes clear why SPECAL® works for managing the condition regardless of the presence of other dementia symptoms often considered unrelated to memory.

The SPECAL® method has been shown to:

  • increase the person’s confidence and thereby seemingly slowing the rate of decline, producing a “plateau effect” in observed symptoms
  • reduce the need for medication
  • enable the person to remain in their own home for significantly longer
  • minimize the distress all too often seen during and after a transition into a different care setting
  • decrease the care partner guilt
Penny Garner, founder of the SPECAL Method, with Cyndy Luzinski, executive director of Dementia Together.

Local Research

Since 2020, Researchers from Colorado State University (CSU) and Dementia Together (DT) have partnered to evaluate how DT’s SPECAL programming promotes positive outcomes for adults with dementia and their care partners. Data from six different cohorts of SPECAL participants shows several positive impacts for care partners and their loved ones.

The SPECAL® Approach

We share the SPECAL® Photograph Album analogy, and the 3 Golden Rules and Tools for effective communication in all of our dementia education aimed at helping someone “live well with dementia”. SPECAL® general principles apply to anyone coming into contact with a person living with dementia. The SPECAL approach is helpful for anyone seeking to accommodate for the disability of dementia in a meaningful way. Once we can understand what it actually feels like to have dementia, it immediately becomes obvious that a common sense approach to managing the condition is not useful. “SPECAL® sense” is required.

The SPECAL® Method

We work with families in this family-driven model to practice not only the general principles of SPECAL® sense, but also take into account the very SPECific individual historical information of their loved ones along with their current carefully observed interactions, (questions, words, phrases, gestures, and responses of their loved ones) in order to develop an individualized care profile and manage the condition of dementia in a positive way.

The SPECAL® System

We help families not only discover key components needed to create and sustain well-being but also walk alongside them as they practice their skills; develop a plan for growing their care team of SPECAL®-informed people in senior care, health care, and the community sectors; and incorporate and communicate individualized strategies for risk-management, counter-intuitively placing emotional safety ahead of physical safety if even by a split second. With the SPECAL® System in place, confidence and competence are promoted for everyone concerned, thus making it possible to create well-being from early stages of cognitive changes through the end of life.

With SPECAL® we can make living well with dementia the expectation, not the exception.