GORHAM — The Home Instead Senior Care office now offers a new approach to help Maine families manage the challenges of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
Free training for families caring for older adults is now available at classes in various locations throughout Cumberland County or online at HelpForAlzheimersFamilies.com.
“Home Instead’s ‘Alzheimer’s or Other Dementias CARE: Changing Aging through Research and Education Training Program’ offers a personal approach to help families care for seniors with Alzheimer’s disease at home, where 60 percent to 70 percent live,” according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
The foundation of the Alzheimer’s CARE Training Program is an approach called “Capturing Life’s Journey” that “involves gathering stories and experiences about the senior to help caregivers provide comfort by honoring and connecting with the individual’s past,” a Home Instead release states. “Because people with Alzheimer’s disease have difficulty with short-term memory, the ‘Capturing Life’s Journey’ approach taps into long-term memories they still retain.”
The program for family caregivers consists of four classes: Alzheimer’s Disease or Other Dementias Overview; Capturing Life’s Journey; Techniques to Manage Behaviors; and Activities to Encourage Engagement.
Also available is a free guide for those who are caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias. Called Helping Families Cope, the guide includes advice to help families keep their loved ones engaged and manage behaviors.
“CARE is a wonderful hands-on approach that helps caregivers deal with the behavioral changes that too often accompany these disorders — one of the biggest stressors for caregivers,” Dr. Jane F. Potter, chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said in the release. “There was previously no good program available using adult education techniques to provide hands-on practice in learning how best to help people who have dementia.”
“The preferred environment for those with dementia is generally at home,” said Potter, who served on the expert panel to help develop content for the Alzheimer’s CARE Training Program.
For more information about free family caregiver training or to obtain a free copy of the Helping Families Cope booklet, call 839-0441 or visit HelpforAlzheimersFamilies.com.
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