There is an urgent need to equip caregivers to better respond to and care for persons living with dementia. Traditional training models have focused on the number of classroom hours an individual must spend in training, assuming that a person who completes the required training hours is ready to work successfully with people living with dementia. The shift to competency-based training improves dementia care by focusing on mastery of tasks and tools that are learned.
Topics: AGE-u-cate Training Institute, dementia care, Senior Care Professionals, care staff, dementia, caregivers, compassionate touch, Dementia Live, leadership, Hospital Professionals, dementia training, staff
What's it really like to live with dementia? To cope with the anxiety, embarrassment, feelings of loss and hopeless that can so often accompany the progression of dementia. There are far too many caregivers today who are struggling with truly understanding the depths of living with cognitive decline and sensory changes. Instead caregivers try to cope with what's on the surface. Transformation takes place when caregivers change how they think, feel and act!
Topics: AGE-u-cate Training Institute, Senior Care Professionals, Family Caregiver, Training, dementia, caregivers, leadership, Hospital Professionals, Caregiver Training, Dementia Live Training, understanding, education and training
Having just returned from Australia, I'll be devoting several upcoming blogs to my research and fact finding with how Australia is advancing in aging and dementia care, as well as dementia and age friendly best practices. I found their award wages for aged care workers to be one significant difference from the US and worthy of discussion.
Topics: AGE-u-cate Training Institute, dementia care, Senior Care Professionals, Senior Care, dementia, compassionate touch, Dementia Live, leadership, Hospital Professionals, Australia, award wages, Aged care workers
The increasing diversity of the U.S. and other nations offers opportunities and challenges for senior care care providers, health care systems, and policy makers to create and deliver services to culturally diverse patients and to train and increasingly culturally diverse workforce. Cultural competence refers to an ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures. Cultural competence comprises four components: (a) awareness of one's own cultural worldview, (b) attitude towards cultural differences, (c) knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews, and (d) cross-cultural skills. Developing cultural competence through training can result in a better ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures and can lead to a 15% decrease in miscommunication. In senior care, this communications training can significantly improve outcomes, especially in caring for those with dementias, chronic illness, pain and at end-of-life.
Topics: AGE-u-cate Training Institute, Senior Care Professionals, Senior Care, Aging in the Workplace, Training, Hospital Professionals, Diversity, health, Cultural Competency, Workforce, patients, competence
Families caring for aging adults have and will continue to reach unprecedented numbers affecting every corner of our society. We MUST address the complex needs of this population who are the foundation of long-term care nationwide, exceeding Medicaid long-term care spending in all states (National Alliance for Caregiving and Overcare, March 2009). Jo Horne, author of Caregiving: Helping an Aging Love One created the Caregiver's Bill of Rights. These are powerful and impactful words of hope and guidance for each and every person caring for a family member or friend:
Topics: AGE-u-cate Training Institute, Senior Care Professionals, Family Caregiver, compassionate touch, Hospital Professionals, caregiving, family caregivers, aging, faith communities, long term care, Dementia Live™️
Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and coach who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball. One of his famous quotes "The Future Ain't What it Used to Be" couldn't be more appropriate as we look at the paradigm shifts taking place in our aging world.
Topics: AGE-u-cate Training Institute, Senior Care Professionals, Aging in the Workplace, leadership, Hospital Professionals, aging, children, health
Time is precious. Staff is in short supply. Family caregivers are stretched to the limit. Just taking care of the basic needs is hard enough, so five minutes a day seems - IMPOSSIBLE!
Topics: AGE-u-cate Training Institute, Person-centered, Senior Care Professionals, Family Caregiver, Senior Care, Family, compassionate touch, Dementia Live, leadership, Hospital Professionals, education, older adults, staff, communication, touch
We're all in this together... the tsunami is here and every one of us serving older adults in some capacity should be getting on the band wagon and FAST. Person and patient centered care must be focused on supporting and educating families. When family-centered care is embraced it becomes an approach to health care decision making that involves health care professionals and family members.
Topics: AGE-u-cate Training Institute, Family Caregiver, dementia, Hospital Professionals, Faith Community, chronic illness, education, Dementia friendly hospital, Family-Centered Care, Patient-Centered Care
Losing sleep, poor eating habits, irritability or short tempered - these symptoms may start small and snowball quickly into what is referred to as caregiver burnout. Professionals and families need to know what to look for and how to help caregivers. It's a serious matter and growing, as more families are caring for their loved ones at home with little or no help.
Topics: The Faith Community, AGE-u-cate Training Institute, dementia care, Senior Care Professionals, Family Caregiver, Senior Care, Dementia Live, Hospital Professionals, Stress, Burnout, Alzheimer's Association, elder care, education, resources, dementia training, Area Agencies on Aging
The rapid pace of our aging world is changing the face of every facet of our society from health and long term care, to faith communities and business establishments. Across the spectrum, issues such as these are at the forefront of leadership discussions:
Topics: AGE-u-cate Training Institute, Senior Care Professionals, Family Caregiver, Aging in the Workplace, compassionate touch, Dementia Live, Professional Caregiver, Hospital Professionals, Faith Community, Age friendly business, elder care, long term care, Dementia friendly hospital
