Level 1: Validation Worker
Requirements for certification:
- take part in a training course
- practice individual Validation for at least 6 months
- show documentation of practical work
- pass written and practical examinations
Certified Validation Workers:
- can practice individual Validation
- can give short presentations of Validation for small groups
- can give support to interested people
A Validation Worker is able to:
- be empathetic.
- exquisitely listen to another human being; hear the meaning
beyond what is said.
- put his or her feelings in the closet in order to be non-judgemental.
- observe a maloriented or disoriented elderly person in an
organized, careful manner.
- understand the symbols used by maloriented and disoriented
elderly.
- diagnose the stage of disorientation (according to Validation).
- build a warm, trusting relationship with a maloriented and
disoriented elderly person.
- demonstrate all the Validation techniques at a basic level.
- demonstrate that he or she knows which techniques to use with
which stage of disorientation.
The Validation Worker knows:
- Erikson's life stages and tasks, as well as Feil's "Resolution
vs. Vegetation" stage, and is able to apply them to disoriented elderly.
- the basic human emotions and universal needs, plus can identify
these needs in disoriented elderly.
- the goals of Validation both for the client and for the worker.
- the population for which Validation was developed.
- the differences between an early on-set Alzheimer patient
and a disoriented old-old person.
- the physical, psychological and emotional characteristics
of the four stages of disorientation.
- how Validation differs from and compares to Reality Orientation,
Reminiscence, Remotivation and Sensory Stimulation methods.
- the principles of Validation.