By Danielle Banman, DOR, The Healthcare Resort of Leawood, KS
Caitlin Colteryahn is our lead occupational therapist here at The Healthcare Resort of Leawood and has been with us for four years. Caitlin graduated from Rockhurst University in 2014. She has been married for 10 years and has two boys. She loves spending time outdoors and traveling, especially with friends and family.
Caitlin is an outstanding occupational therapist and is passionate about developing programs for maximizing independence for our residents with dementia. She received advanced training in dementia care in March 2020 to earn the title of Therapy Expert for Abilities Care Holistic Approach (TEACHA). Caitlin has developed an amazing program here at our facility and enjoys teaching other occupational therapists in our market about this program to improve the quality of life for all individuals with dementia that we have the privilege to serve.
Caitlin says this of our program: “I believe it is incredibly important, now more than ever, that we as clinicians use the tools available to us and our clinical knowledge to help develop and implement strategies based on our residents’ functional cognition and strengths to reduce their risk of decline, promote engagement, and for overall quality of life. I love and it is an honor to work with this population, as we have the resources to really get to know who our residents are, what makes them the person they are today, and then to use that knowledge to help them achieve their goals. As a TEACHA, the pandemic has complicated the ability to be able to go into other facilities to help implement programming. However, I have been able to collaborate with other clinicians in and outside of our market through email/phone in order to help support them to utilize the Abilities Care strength-based programming to help reach the needs of their residents.”