Free Alzheimer training for local family caregivers

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) A local in-home senior care company is offering free Alzheimer's Training to Allen County and Northeastern Indiana family caregivers.

Home Instead Senior Care has training available through online interactive e-learning modules at HelpForAlzheimersFamilies.com .

According to the Alzheimer's Association, 60 to 70 percent of seniors with the disease live at home. The Alzheimer’s or Other Dementias CARE: Changing Aging through Research and Education ^SM  Training Program offers a personal approach to  help families who are caring for family members with Alzheimer's.

“Until there is a cure, we offer an interim solution,” said Jim Sullivan, owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office serving Fort Wayne, Allen County and the surrounding areas of Northeastern Indiana.

The CARE program for family caregivers consists of four classes:

• Alzheimer’s Disease or Other Dementias Overview
• Capturing Life’s Journey
• Techniques to Manage Behaviors
• Activities to Encourage Engagement

A free guide called Helping Families Cope that has advice to help families keep their loved ones engaged and manage behaviors is also available.

“CARE is a wonderful hands-on approach that helps caregivers deal with the behavioral changes that too often accompany these disorders – one of the biggest stressors for caregivers,” said Dr. Jane F. Potter, chief of Geriatrics and Gerontology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “There was previously no good program available using adult education techniques to provide hands-on practice in learning how best to help people who have dementia. This is huge.”

“The preferred environment for those with dementia is generally at home,” said Potter, “That makes the Alzheimer’s Disease or Other Dementias CARE Training Program a solution for the many families in our area who are being impacted each day by devastating side effects of this disease,” Sullivan said.

For more information about  free family caregiver training or to obtain a free copy of the Helping Families Cope booklet, contact the local Home Instead Senior Care office at 260-485-2424 or visit HelpforAlzheimersFamilies.com.