All staff to benefit from a one year Tailored Training Package
Dementia can happen to anyone, but it is more common in people over the age of 65. Over 400,000 people are living with dementia in Australia as of 2018 and an estimated 250 people join the dementia population every day. The rates of dementia in Australia are expected to increase exponentially over the next few decades with over 1 million people expected to be affected by 2056.
Providing excellent care to someone living with dementia requires special knowledge and skills. Ananda Aged Care and Dementia Training Australia (DTA) have teamed up to develop a tailored Training Package (TTP) to help staff gain further knowledge, skills and understanding in this area. This training will enable you to work more effectively with people living with dementia and their families and provide the high quality, personalised care and assistance every resident at Ananda Aged Care needs and deserves.
Staff can access online courses, face to face sessions with dementia experts and champions at both sites will take part in DTA consultancies on responsive behaviours and also medication management.
The goals of the one year partnership are to increase confidence of all staff to care for people with dementia; reduce the number of incidents associated with unmet needs of residents with dementia; and to reduce the already low use of medications – which is also a focus of the Royal Commission.
Ananda has already worked with DTA to carry out an environmental assessment and improvements have been made in Derwent and Rose wings, yet we have residents with dementia in all areas of both homes and are seeking to improve the care and services available to them.
The provision of best practice training is a result of a training needs analysis we carried out with DTA and the expectation of Ananda is that all staff who interact with residents must have the necessary skills, knowledge and attitude to provide current best practice care in line with the 2016 Clinical Guidelines for dementia care and also the new Aged Care Standards which come into effect on July 1 this year.
Michael Page, Resident Focused Care Advocate.
