Dementia-Care Training Addresses Need in Area

Over 200 people attended one of the three days of Alzheimer's and dementia-care training held last week at the Cottonwood. The seminar featured dementia-care trainer and consultant Heather McKay, who presented three days of training focused on assisting family, caregivers, and professionals in better understanding Alzheimer's and dementia care.

Training began Tuesday, Sept. 25, with an eight-hour caregiver day focusing on assisting family, friends and personal caregivers in empathizing and understanding dementia. The main focus was getting participants to understand the "why" behind the actions of the care recipient.

"Really we are focused on showing the 'why' they (dementia patients) do what they do, and how we can help," said McKay. She was also excited to see the broad range of community members at the training. "In general, this has been three days of community-wide training for people, not just in health care," explained McKay,"We have had family, first responders, law enforcement and just a range of people who interact with people with Alzheimer's."

McKay described the training event here in Glasgow as unique in a way. She explained that most of the time these events feature attendees that are prominently nursing or health care workers, but that, "Here in Glasgow it happened as more of a community event."

According to one of the event's organizers, Roubie Younkin, the training went exceptionally well and was very well attended. "It went really well," said Younkin, "But it is kind of sad that such a need exists in the community."

Younkin also pointed out that the family day of training also included financial prep and advice on preparing for dementia or Alzheimer's. "On Tuesday, Family Day, we had Marsha Geoting, a MSU Family Economics specialist, here to visit with families regarding financial and estate planning challenges surrounding dementia as well," explained Younkin.

The following two days of training focused on professional development with nursing and administrative staff from the hospital, Valley View Home and Prairie Ridge attending as well as first responders and law enforcement from the Valley County Sheriff's Office.

Registered nurse at Valley View Home Kim Ciafardone described the training in the following terms: "This is great hands-on information that we can take and directly educate people with and help provide the best care possible for our residents."