- Do your caregivers know what stimuli can trigger difficult behaviors and can they respond appropriately?
- Can they interpret what a resident needs when the resident cannot communicate well?
- Do they know how to talk to residents at different stages of their disease?
- Do your caregivers understand why your residents might act differently at different times of the day?
- Can they anticipate crisis situations and take steps to prevent them?
- Do they have the knowledge and insight to be compassionate and respectful when others might become frustrated?
- Do they understand the world of Alzheimer’s patients – what they are feeling and what they have lost?
- Do they empathize with what families are going through?
Today, residential memory care assisted living services are a rapidly growing and increasingly important component of senior living services. Not surprisingly, the marketplace for residential memory care is becoming highly competitive. And above all, Quality Matters!
As the HealthLeaders.com article, “What’s Your Brand?,” concludes, “Your brand walks on two legs” – meaning your employees’ interactions with your residents, their families, prospective customers and referral sources have an enormous impact on how your community is viewed in the marketplace, for better or worse. Clearly, your staff members have the power to make or break your brand.
Family members of loved ones with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia typically rate residential memory care communities based on their perceptions of the quality of care and the level of competence of the caregiving staff. For adult children and their families, trust and confidence is everything and their impressions of your community’s skill level have major implications for your “word of mouth,” general reputation and ultimately, your occupancy.
Specialized Training by Certified Professionals Gives You the Edge
For residential memory care communities seeking to distinguish themselves in the marketplace by providing exceptional quality of care, in-depth understanding and insightful compassion, your staff’s knowledge and training is critical.SageAge Strategies provides the professional training expertise you need to raise your employees’ performance to the highest levels and to assure that your community has the strongest reputation for exceptional memory care.
SageAge Strategies’ Karen Nelson Crolius, MBA, Senior Vice President / Senior Consultant, possesses certifications in three key areas that demonstrate expertise in dementia care and staff training: Certified Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Care Trainer, Certified Dementia Practitioner and Certified Dementia Care Manager. These valuable certifications were bestowed by the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners (NCCDP) whose goal is to promote national standards for comprehensive and extensive Alzheimer’s disease and dementia education and the highest quality of care practices. Together, these certifications reflect Karen’s comprehensive knowledge in dementia care and her competency to train others and have a direct impact in the quality of care provided to memory care residents. Her credentials also demonstrate her ability to effectively oversee, manage and supervise the daily operations of dementia units.
As the number of dementia patients continues to increase across our nation, there is significantly greater need to ensure that all staff caregivers, managers and healthcare professionals are well trained to provide appropriate, competent and compassionate care and support to residents with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Dementia education also enables your staff members to anticipate, plan and prepare for crisis situations as well as to take proactive steps to prevent them. SageAge Strategies supports many memory care communities throughout the country, and we look forward to using our specialized training expertise to benefit your community as well as home health, hospice and skilled care providers.
A Best-Practice Curriculum Enables You to Provide the Highest Standard of Memory Care
In conducting on-site training programs for your community, SageAge utilizes the official NCCDP comprehensive Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Care educational curriculum for staff seminars and in-services. NCCDP-certified trainers such as Karen demonstrate the value of “live” training and the impact such training has on your staff in providing compassionate care, decreasing incidences of abuse and neglect, and educating them on difficult behaviors, crisis intervention and crisis prevention. This training provides your entire community with a better understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia, and better prepares you to deal with the daily challenges experienced by the growing number of senior adults with memory impairment.
Award-Winning Expertise Is Available to Help Your Community Grow
If you are a senior living community considering the need for assistance in developing a reputation as a customer-centered quality leader, we encourage you to take advantage of our exceptional capabilities and experience in memory care services to assure your staff personnel have the skills they need to make your community truly stand apart. We are an industry leader that operates exclusively in the unique senior living marketplace and has the specialized expertise, extensive experience and award-winning results to enable you to succeed. As 2014 recipients of 10 Generations Awards for marketing excellence and the prestigious LTC LINK Elite Supplier Award, SageAge Strategies invites you to contact us today at 570-601-1720 for more information on our suite of strategic services that will help your community grow.