Dementia Training at Home Instead Dartford

Home Instead Dartford provides excellent Dementia training to all its Care Professionals.  This training is essential and extremely valuable to all staff.  Home Instead Dartford’s ethos in working with and caring for people living with dementia requires all of its Care Professionals to have a compassionate approach and this is what the training provides.

Why are the Care Professionals trained?

The training is extremely valuable to all the Care Professionals and utilised in every visit to clients with this progressive illness.

How is the training delivered?

The training is delivered in-house by one of the owners, Ram Chandra Thapa – our Dementia Champion.  Ram also trains other groups in the community as part of his unending commitment to help people living with dementia and, of course, their families.

How is training developed?

Home Instead Dartford’s training has been developed in collaboration with End of Life Partnership, in particular their Advanced Dementia Support Team, and research from The Alzheimer’s Society https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/  who support the training modules.

The training itself covers a vast array of knowledge gleaned from the above mentioned organisations’ research.

What is covered in the training?

One of the first things Care Professionals learn is that dementia is a sort of umbrella term for different types of dementia.

There are 100s of different types of dementia and some of the well-known types are Alzheimer’s Disease, Vascular Dementia, Dementia with Lewy Bodies.

The first thing training teaches that is surprising is that dementia is a “disease” and not a mental illness; a disease that attacks and destroys physical parts of the brain resulting in loss of language, memory and decision-making.

This disease takes many forms and all are progressive and incurable conditions which go through many similar stages.

Early signs are covered as well as the progress and deterioration to be expected and which all persons living with dementia ultimately go through.

Then the training covers a myriad of help that can be employed such as listening, allowing people living with dementia to have their own reality no matter how different it is to the Care Professional,  to ensure that the person has all the love and compassion necessary to deal with any foreseeable situation.

Communication and its various forms are taught and this gives confidence to the student in being able to become a friend to the person living with dementia.

Finally, certain scenarios are put forward and the students are encouraged to use the solutions given so that the person living with dementia feels cared for and that their contributions are very important.  Each student must demonstrate their knowledge coupled with compassion and each student ends up feeling confident, knowledgeable and, most of all, able to help people living with dementia.

Qualifications of Training

The training given results in a City & Guilds assured qualification for each student.

When the Care Professionals attend a client who is living with dementia, they and their families can rest assured that they are in very capable and caring hands.

At Home Instead Dartford one of the most important surprises learned is that with dementia there is no concept of “one size fits all”.  Each person living with dementia is as “individual as a snowflake” and all are cared for with person centred care by all the trained Care Professionals always.

People Living with Dementia at Home

It has become increasingly obvious that people living with dementia fair a lot better if they are kept in their own environment, at home.

This increases their ability to be themselves in their familiar surroundings.

Gives a sense of being able to do all the things that the person did before their diagnosis, albeit on a much lesser scale.

Being cared for at home is a wonderful way for them to continue to live a life already travelled successfully.

Care Professional’s role for a person living with dementia at home

Visiting and caring for a person living with dementia is very different from visiting a person who has physical, emotional or other types of need.

Here is an example of what the training offers when a trained Care Professional visits a person living with dementia for the first time in their home.

On entering the home the Care Professional finds the client living with dementia is very talkative about their reality which may be about some time in the past.  The client’s constant subject changing may not make sense or have any continuity for a conversation.  As a result of the training the Care Professional would:

Engage the person by listening and acknowledging them at appropriate moments.

Be interested in what the client has to say but not try to be interesting to them by talking about themselves.

Not correct their communication to what suits them.

Listen and acknowledge which safeguards the client in enabling them to be themselves in the moment.

The client may be in a different era and of an age much younger than they are at the present time so lots of praise and understanding will go a long way to building a relationship with the client.

If a client wishes to assist in any part of their care this would be encouraged as a small action, like brushing teeth, putting on a wash, washing up, hoovering, preparing food together etc.as it will go a long way to help the client feel important in their environment.

Symptoms to look for

Trained Care Professionals are taught to notice symptoms to look for in dementia clients, some of which are quite surprising and could be easily overlooked as “something else” – see below:

Mood and behaviour changes such as sudden aggression, being irritated or agitated or being upset for no apparent reasons;

Feelings of depression, sadness or hopelessness;

Anxious, worried or simply feeling uneasy;

Loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities like embroidery, music, cooking etc;

Completely out of normal character activity or doing something considered inappropriate;

Walking about with no real purpose or simply looking/feeling restless.

As well as the surprising symptoms there are some more common ones also learned from the training:

Memory Loss

This can be short term loss which may result in questions being asked over and over again.  Patience is of the utmost importance and taking each repetitive question as if it’s the first time it has been asked goes a long way to helping a client feel heard and that their communication is valuable.

Loss of Words

When trying to communicate something the dementia client may not be able to find the right words to use to describe what they are trying to say.  Care Professionals would listen carefully and ensure that the client felt understood, thereby making them feel comfortable.

Decision Making

Sometimes a dementia client will make a decision that is not in line with the activity undertaken and the Care Professional would gently guide the person to make a different decision by giving small options such as correct clothing to wear if its cold or raining.

Hallucinations

These can take many forms such as looking in a mirror and seeing something that is not there; seeing things moving around the floors or walls; hearing people in different parts of the home and  seeing people and feeling quite anxious about the presence of those imaginary people..  This list is not exhaustible and merely a cursory look at some items of hallucination.

One of my successes from the Training

I had regular visits to a client who was living with dementia and this client was easily distracted from her trains of thought.  The client found it difficult to completely follow through on a first subject.  This was frustrating for them.

From the training I learned that if I could find out something that the person living with dementia was very good at or really enjoyed in the past in a gentle way, I could help with focus and hopefully bring some happiness.  I recalled from some previous fragmented communications that the client had an extensive musical background with a particular ability in piano playing and teaching.

On my next visit I brought an electronic keyboard with me which I set to “piano”.  The client was transported to a much happier time and place simply by being able to play some music.  To watch the complete joy and focus manifested by the client was nothing short of magical.  The client even taught me some things I had forgotten about and this gave the client as real sense of purpose.

That is one of the beautiful bonuses of the training.

Summary

The training delivered by Home Instead Dartford to its Care Professionals is of a standard that provides excellent levels of knowledge and “how to” information which results in highly trained, competent and confident people who are in great demand in the community.  Home Instead Dartford delivers what it promises.  Our trained Care Professionals all take great care of people living with dementia, producing amazing results for the client and for their family members.

We do hope you have a better understanding of the training our Care Professionals undertake and that this has peaked your interest in gaining the help that you need.

Care Professionals at Home Instead Dartford are available and can be relied upon to be there for you and your loved ones.

Home Instead also offer many other services which include but are not limited to:

• Light Housekeeping
• After Hospital Care
• Parkinson’s Care
• End of Life Care
• Live in Care
• Medication Management
• Companionship
• Respite Care
• Transportation
• Healthy Meal Preparation

Do contact us at Home Instead Dartford, St Fidelis House, St Fidelis’ Rd, Erith DA8 1AT (T: 01322 923750) for further information or simply to talk over your situation.  You can contact us by email at [email protected] or visit our website for an in depth look at our services at www.homeinstead.co.uk/dartford

Our friendly staff are always on hand to help and you will be greeted with a smile and will be in great hands.

We would like to thank our Care Professional, Dawn, for writing this blog.