Spark of Passion: Applying the Spark of Life Model of Care in Mumbai, India

By Sailesh Mishra, Founder President, Spark of Life Master Practitioner, Silver Innings, Mumbai, India

8th March, 2024 

A1Senhanjali, assisted living residential elder care home is a project initiated by Silver Innings. I founded the care home in 2013, and it is one of its kind in the Maharashtra State of India. It is located near Virar, on the outskirts of Mumbai, and has an innovative way of looking at elder care. The centre caters for elders who need special care such as for those suffering from dementia, Parkinson’s Disease and the very old and frail. The ‘A1Snehanjali’ home offers residents both individualised and group programs and services that focus on stimulating the mind, body and soul. A therapeutic and secure environment is provided to the residents along with innovative non-pharmacological interventions.

With the Spark of Life Model of Care we have changed the perspective of our A1Snehanjali home: it has made us reconnect with our human values: understanding and empathy, not only towards our residents with dementia, but also to our carers and families.

The Model has been adopted successfully into our rich culture and to our care facility as it aligns with our Asian and Indian sub-continent values, where we talk about family, community and a human approach in everything we do.

Implementing the Spark of Life Model of Care into our organisational culture has enriched the lives of our residents with dementia, enabling them to experience improvements in mental abilities, language, self-esteem, social interactions and emotional well-being. The Model has given us a practical and sustainable way of enriching the lives of people with dementia, their families and carers, transforming the culture of care. The focus is on how to connect, how to communicate and how to care.

With this Model, we now have a more highly educated team at A1Snehanjali, to provide care for persons challenged with dementia. This involves using empathy, skilled engagement, sensory stimulation, and building on our residents’ abilities, at all levels of dementia.

My first book ‘Remember Me – You Me and Dementia’ is a self-help dementia book for people in India and internationally, published in Oct 2017 and was inspiration from the Spark of Life Model of Care. The knowledge we received from Dementia Care International not only gave us that confidence and initiative to write down the struggle and care of family members, but also empowered us with a simple holistic way of telling stories, and sharing the right knowledge and learnings to help the community in their every-day issues with dementia here in India and beyond.

Recommendations

The Spark of Life Model of Care benefits healthcare services, people with dementia, their families, and the community in India.  It provides a comprehensive toolkit to find effective solutions to various dimensions of age and dementia care, thus offering timely support to governments to address the urgent issue of rapid ageing growth and spread of dementia.

Government funding to healthcare services to access this Model would not only outreach dementia awareness and education, empowering the community affected by dementia, but also to reduce costs of their countries’ financial and non-financial impact of dementia care.