ComForCare is teaming up with At Your Side Home Care on a memory care training program to help home care teams address dementia-related challenges. The two firms launched DementiaWise, an occupation-based and team centered program designed specifically for home care workers.
Students and faculty at Duke University’s Occupational Therapy Doctorate Program and Partnerships for Health evaluated the program and found home care workers who completed the program felt better equipped to care for clients living with dementia and their families.
In developing the program, the two companies set out to address a problem with many dementia care training programs. Despite an abundance of lecture-style training, caregivers still struggle to apply knowledge to real-life situations. DementiaWise supplements lectures with videos that demonstrate how caregivers should respond in situations involving a patient.
“With that problem in mind, we knew that more hours in traditional training would be inadequate to improve life for our clients, their families, and our home care teams,” Stephanie Wierzbicka, manager of strategic health programs for ComForCare, said in a statement.
Approximately 6.2 million Americans 65 and older have Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most remain in their homes throughout the progression of the disease.
