Pine Tree Hospice offers dementia care training workshop

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — As part of Pine Tree Hospice’s Caring for the Caregiver series Wynona Randall, director of professional development at the Charlotte White Center, will present a six-session dementia care training workshop beginning Tuesday, Sept. 16 from 6-8 p.m. and continuing each Tuesday evening through Oct. 21. The workshops will be held at the Mayo Regional Hospital Resource Center.

    The training was developed by the Alzheimer’s Association of Massachusetts and New Hampshire and is based on the model of dementia care called “habilitation therapy”. This is a comprehensive behavioral approach to caring for people with dementia, focusing not on what the person has lost due to the illness, but on his or her remaining abilities. Habilitation therapy creates and maintains positive emotional states through the course of each day, engaging the dementia patient’s capabilities, independence, and morale to produce a state of psychological well-being. In this way, difficult symptoms can be reduced or eliminated, even as the illness progresses.
    This curriculum has been taught in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult day programs and hospice settings. The format includes discussion activities, lecture, demonstration, role-play and group work. The training is presented in PowerPoint format. Topics covered will include: understanding dementia, communication and personal care and family care.
    Space is limited. Call Pine Tree Hospice at 564-4346 or email wecare@pinetreehospice.org for more information.