HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — A Triangle woman’s positive approach to caretaking is going viral on the social media platform, TikTok.

Teepa Snow is a dementia care trainer and consultant with more than 40 years of experience in the industry.

“Over the years I’ve been more skilled in dementia. Developing strategies you need when you’re going to help people living with dementia live well,” Snow said.

Snow is a lead volunteer at Florence Gray Soltys Adult Day Health Program in Hillsborough that recently reopened. Snow and her fellow caretakers took to TikTok to share the positive approach to caring for people with dementia.

“We did a video and within two weeks it had, it has over 3 million views and I was like ‘woah what just happened.' What we picked was option one, option two, option one was what commonly happens and option two is if you use the positive approach to this, what could happen, and people just went ‘woah what is this’ and we’ve done a lot more of them,” Snow said.

Snow opened her business Positive Approach to Care in 2007. It’s since expanded to more than 30 countries worldwide, working to improve dementia care.

“What we know is music, rhythm and positive is much more effective than ‘stand up, I need you to stand up,’ because if they can’t get words then sounding angry with words isn’t going to inspire someone to want to be with you,” Snow said.

The Duke, UNC graduate says using visual cues or an item that has value to the person you are caring for in a positive direction will result in the outcome you are looking for.

“What happens when you can’t use language as well, what can we do different to make it possible to connect and communicate,” Snow said.

Snow began including participants at Soltys Adult Day Health Program in her TikTok videos to provide real life situations, like how to comfortably reposition someone in a chair.

“The group we have a lot of connection with are 55 plus, but the people who are providing care aren’t 55 plus all the time and we were like 'how can we make connections with younger people,'“ Snow said.

The response has been positive. Snow's TikTok account gained nearly 158,000 followers and 2.2 million likes in less than a month.

“It’s a great connection, and it’s really a sense of community,” Snow said.

In North Carolina, more than 180,000 people are living with Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. More than 385,000 family members and friends serve as caregivers.

Snow says the impact this disease has on families is so common and widespread, which is why she works every day to improve the quality of lives of those living with the disease.

“When you love what you do, you don’t go to work, you go to find joy,” Snow said.