ComForCare and At Your Side Home Care Innovative Caregiver Training Program Addresses America’s Growing Need for Dementia-Capable Home Care Teams

This option can allow greater comfort, familiarity, and quality of life compared to institutional care. Although there are benefits to aging at home, research reveals individuals and families dealing with dementia at home face significant disease-related and social challenges; thus, there is an urgent and growing need for more dementia-capable home care services. In light of the situation, stakeholders - including policymakers, administrators, families, and people living with dementia—continuously emphasize interdisciplinary staff training to create a more dementia-capable workforce.

ComForCare and At Your Side Home Care have launched DementiaWise®, an innovative occupation-based and team-centered training program designed to help their home care teams resolve dementia-related challenges. The DementiaWise program is changing the way home care agencies approach memory care training and client collaboration in the U. S. and Canada.

A program evaluation study conducted by student and faculty researchers at Duke University Occupational Therapy Doctorate Program and Partnerships for Health found home care workers who completed the DementiaWise training felt better equipped and empowered to collaboratively care for clients living with dementia and their families (self-efficacy). They had greater job satisfaction compared to teammates who had not yet completed DementiaWise.