Author:
Kim Warchol, President and Founder of DCS at CPI
Meet a Dementia Capable Care Superstar
In this blog series “Meet a Dementia Capable Care Superstar,” we will introduce you to individuals and organizations who are going above and beyond, to create a dementia capable workforce and to deliver high quality care and services.
Aegis Living – An Organization You Should Get to Know
Aegis Living prides itself on being, “A home you’ll love, with the care you deserve.” They have many campuses across the country that provide assisted living and memory care services.
When defining what sets memory care apart from other forms of senior care, Aegis Living states, “Memory Care differs from other senior care options because it focuses on providing specialized care and support for residents with memory loss. Memory Care includes caring, trained staff equipped to handle the nuances and challenges of memory loss. They can skillfully engage, support, calm, and redirect residents. Memory Care promotes cognitive stimulation, emotional wellbeing, and safety for residents.”
Clearly this organization believes quality care and services are rooted in skills and training. They have put their beliefs into action as several of their locations have trained their staff and earned our Dementia Capable Care-Workforce Leader recognition. We couldn’t be prouder to be the training organization selected to help build their specialized dementia care workforce.
An Interview with Julie Ambachew, RN Vice President of Clinical Services with Aegis Living
We had the privilege of interviewing Julie. She shed some light on the reasons why it mattered so much for so many of the Aegis Living Assisted Living and Memory Care locations to become a recognized Dementia Capable Care – Workforce Leader. Let’s hear what Julie had to say.
Q: What is your definition of high-quality memory/dementia care?
A: High quality memory/dementia care includes understanding every resident now, knowing what their individualized needs are, and being able to care for them at that level.
With the knowledge and skills gained from quality dementia education, plus experience, staff can also pivot as their residents’ needs change and their dementia progresses. If we can pivot when the resident changes, we are able to meet their needs every step along their own personal journey, adjusting to their physical and cognitive changes.
We need to see the individual from a holistic perspective such as mind, body, and spirit, to accomplish taking care of all their needs and produce a high quality of life.
Q: Why is dementia training (training that is person-centered and focused on supporting people at different dementia stages and preventing and de-escalating “behaviors” without drugs) so important?
A: Our goal at Aegis is to provide care practices that center on resident preferences and are supported by staff with quality focused dementia education and communication skills necessary to relate to and support residents living with dementia.
Q: What were some of the key reasons you decided to partner with us and utilize our Dementia Capable Care training?
A: Ensuring that we could provide our regional health services team with the opportunity to be the instructors was valuable to us as they know our goals, our philosophy and give firsthand accounts of real scenarios with our residents for our staff to learn from.
Also, being able to provide certification for the actual community was the key. It is beneficial for our families to be aware that we wanted to add training beyond what is required of us to be able to provide safe, quality, personal and individual care to our residents that have a progressive disease.
We need to be able to meet the goals of the individual residents by meeting them where they are currently in their disease, but also skillfully adapting and adjusting as they advance.
We need staff to be able to understand all facets of dementia and how to respond to the different types of dementia regarding finding appropriate ways to create quality interventions and successful redirection techniques.
Q: How does earning the Dementia Capable Care- Workforce Leader recognition (and digital badge) help your organization?
A: The Workforce Leader recognition benefits:
- Helps us market our true commitment to our mission to our current and future residents and families.
- By ensuring that our staff obtain quality dementia education it helps us attain our goals.
- It helps us bring awareness to our care level staff as well as director level that our goal is to understand our clients in all stages and with different types of dementia, to better carry out quality patient centered care.
Closing
We hope you will get to know Aegis Living, and their campuses that have earned Dementia Capable Care- Workforce Leader recognition.
What I love is that there is clearly no disconnect between what they message on their website (to their prospective residents, families, and referrals) and the decisions they make each day. Anybody can say they are committed to providing high quality dementia care, but doing it is the hard part. Providing high quality care requires a specialized, trained workforce. We applaud Aegis Living for going the extra mile to prepare their staff with the dementia training they need to give the quality care their residents deserve.
At Dementia Care Specialists, we have made a commitment, pledging to create a dementia capable society by partnering with one person, one organization at a time. It truly is my honor and privilege to be the chosen dementia training partner of Aegis Living. Working together, we can, and we will, make the world a better place for those living with dementia, their loved ones, and their care partners.
If you’d like to learn more about how your organization can earn the Dementia Capable Care – Workforce Leader recognition, click here to access DCC-WL FAQs.
If you are interested in Dementia Capable Care training for yourself or your team...
Contact us:
Phone: 866-954-1910
E-mail: DCSsolutions@crisisprevention.com
August 2024
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