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Let’s Close the Gap on
Dementia Care Training
B y nature of the illness,
people with Alzheimer’s
disease or other forms
of dementia will at some point
be recipients of long-term care
services. About 70% of people with
dementia receive these services
at home. The primary providers
of these services (in addition to
family members) are the legions of
home care workers who are either
working independently or through
an agency.
In NYC, there are currently at
least 100,000 jobs in home care and
community-based direct care, with a
projected demand for nearly 30,000
new and replacement positions over
the decade ending in 2012.1
Many (probably most) of these workers are caring for
a person with dementia (PWD).
I am reminded by Nancy Lee Hendley, Chapter
Dementia Care Trainer, that home care aides who work
with a PWD perform one of the most difficult jobs
imaginable. They are often alone with the PWD for
many hours with very limited support. Yet the amount
of dementia care training that most home care workers
receive is woefully inadequate to prepare them to care for
this very vulnerable and misunderstood population.
To make up for this serious omission, the NYC Chapter
offers a 45-hour Dementia Care Training Program for
home care workers. The primary goal of this program is
to prepare a workforce that will ensure quality care in the
homes of people with dementia. This specialized dementia
training provides the basic skills necessary to enable aides
to manage the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and
related dementias – improving the quality of life for the
PWD and their family. This program helps the workers
understand the person in their care and offers pathways to
mutual respect.
Phyllis Ettinger, President and CEO of Royal Health
Care Services, in a recent conversation about some of her
aides who have attended this training, said that “families
ask all the time” if the aide that will be assigned to care
for their relative is trained to take care of someone with
dementia. Phyllis went on to say the training is “certainly
worthwhile and gives the aides a huge advantage in their
work and in their lives.”
Phyllis then added, “I believe the training program has
a major impact on retention. I don’t get those ‘Get me out
of here’ phone calls from aides because they understand
what’s happening with their clients and are better able to
manage constructively.”
You have probably seen our quarterly feature, In Our
Own Words, in which the aides describe the impact of the
training on their client, the client’s family and even their
own personal relationships. One
quote that was so telling: “If I had this training before, I
wouldn’t have had to leave my last job.” We’re confident
that this training has a positive effect on reducing turnover
rates. Turnover is very costly, not only with regard to the
aide losing income, the agency losing a client to another
agency, but perhaps most especially to the PWD. They lose
a consistent caregiver who knows and understands them,
one who has spent time to form a bond. Instead, care
is handled by a series of strangers thereby increasing the
PWD’s emotional stress and increasing the risks to their
well-being, all of which is associated with gaps in care.
Because of the need for and the success of this program,
in 2007, with a grant from the New York Community Trust
Co., Alison Reynoso, Dementia Care Trainer, developed
and subsequently delivered this training in Spanish for
Spanish-speaking home care workers.
The 45-hour Dementia Care Training Programs in
both English and Spanish are offered several times a year.
References
1. Seavey, D., Dawson, S., Rodat, C., Addressing New York City’s Care Gap,
c2007.
— Della Frazier-Rios, RN, MS
Senior Vice President,
Director of Education
& Outreach
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