Creating a Caring Community has been approved by the NAB (National Accreditation Bureau) for 3.75 CEU’s for long-term administrators and nurses in most states.

Introduction

The emotional stress of caring for persons with Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases can be debilitating for family members as well as professional caregivers. Anger, guilt, depression and grief are frequently part of the caregiver’s experience.

As all good managers understand, the success of a long-term care facility extends beyond attending to just the physical needs of the residents. While it is true that memory care patients have lost a great many skills, they generally retain a keen sense of their caregiver’s mood. If the caregiver is agitated and upset, it is often reflected in a resident’s behavior.

The significance of honoring and supporting caregivers’ feelings can have a huge impact on the quality of care provided. It can also have an influence on employee satisfaction and retention which, of course, affects the overall quality of care.

Course Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, the student will have:

• An understanding of how to recognize and cope with the anger, guilt, depression and grief often associated with caregiving
• A knowledge of the similarities and the differences in emotional stress experienced by family and professional caregivers
• Strategies to assist family caregivers as they continue to support their loved ones in long-term care facilities
• A knowledge of factors that contribute to dementia-related inappropriate sexual behavior
• Strategies for dealing with residents who are displaying inappropriate sexual behavior

 

The program is offered online through CEU’s-R-EZ. Click here to connect. The online course title is “Surviving Alzheimer’s“. It includes two 40-minute videos and a written course. It is a fun, informative, and affordable way to get continuing education units.

“Alzheimer’s Survival Training” is an excellent course that speaks to the practical needs of any Alzheimer caregiver. The course is presented in a clear and simple fashion while bringing powerful experience-based recommendations to the student. I strongly recommend this course to any Alzheimer caregiver, whether professional, family or volunteer.

J. Thompson, MHA, NHA
Pittsboro, N.C.

Background

The mission statement of most long-term care nursing and memory care facilities includes a statement about partnering with families and employees to provide compassionate care for their residents. In order to encourage and support that partnership, it is important to understand the extreme emotional stress experienced by family members as they witness their loved ones’ steady decline. It is excruciatingly painful to observe the ongoing losses of cognition and abilities brought on by Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases.

The stress and frustration of this ongoing process often leads to angry outbursts by family members. Sometimes those outbursts are directed at the residents, and sometimes they are directed at staff members. When this happens, the resident can become agitated and upset, which creates more tension. When other residents sense this negative energy, they often act out, which requires more energy and effort on the part of employees as they try to calm and comfort them.

By implementing a personalized  survival plan and making self-care a priority, professional caregivers  will reduce their own emotional stress, which will put them in a better position to offer compassionate support to their care receivers’ family members.

This program compares and contrasts the emotional stress experienced by professional and family caregivers and includes real-life stories from Elaine’s book Letters from Madelyn,  a family caregiver’s story as told through letters, and Dorothy’s Journal, a book Elaine has co-written with Dorothy Tucker, a nurse who journaled her experiences as she worked in nursing homes and Alzheimer’s facilities for 30 years.

When Elaine presents the program live, it includes a keynote and a workshop. The accompanying 32-page workbook can be customized to include sponsorship messages and logos. CEU’s-R-EZ provides a master copy of the CEU certificate that can be signed by conference personnel and filed by attendees with their state boards. To view videos from this program, click here.