The number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias is rising fast, and CareAcademy is committed to equipping direct care workers with the knowledge and skills to meet this growing need.
To better understand the impact of training on caregiver effectiveness we conducted a study with Custom Home Care, an Illinois-based home care agency. We first assessed caregiver understanding to establish baseline knowledge. We then had each participant take a series of dementia care classes across a number of topics including:
- Fundamentals of care
- Effective communication skills
- Managing challenging behaviors
- A general overview of dementia
Using these training requirements as a guideline, we then retested participants to measure how well the CareAcademy courses improved direct care workers’ proficiency in dementia care.
Our biggest takeaway? 95% of individual test-takers improved their test scores by an average of 17 percentage points (p<.001) after completing courses.