Home-based care provider Empath Health rolled out an immersive dementia education program in early September. Available across nine Florida counties, the initiative trains professional care teams and first responders while also offering essential guidance and support for family caregivers.
The new immersive programming aims to improve how local communities handle dementia-related cognitive decline by giving frontline responders and everyday caregivers the tools to defuse crises, to prevent avoidable hospitalizations and to keep patients safely supported at home, Valerie Valiante, vice president of the program of all-inclusive care for the elderly (PACE) and dementia services at Empath Health, told Home Health Care News.
“The experience really helps build a sense of empathy and understanding of what it’s like to experience dementia on a day-to-day basis,” Valiante said. “This can be for caregivers, family members, members of the community, first responders — really anyone who wants to participate.”
Clearwater, Florida-based Empath provides home health, personal care, dementia care, medical and palliative care, and other healthcare services across Florida.
Empath’s dementia services include care coordination, free community education, caregiver training, and specialized adult day programming for individuals with dementia in Ocala, Florida.
Another educational tool is a virtual dementia tour, a licensed in-person experience in which a room is staged and people must fulfill tasks under sensory deficits akin to the experience of having dementia, Valiante explained.
The virtual dementia tour experience adds to Empath’s existing menu of free education and training, caregiver workshops, support groups and one-on-one guidance regarding dementia care, Valiante added.
“We also do memory cafes, and all of these things do come at an operational cost,” Valiante said. “But we are very fortunate at Empath Health because we are a nonprofit organization, and we solely rely on the generosity of the communities where we serve and our foundations.”
Dementia care as part of the continuum
Dementia involves the loss of memory, reasoning, thinking and other cognitive functions to the point of negatively affecting daily life.
Dementia impacts over six million people in the United States and contributes to more than 100,000 deaths each year. Additionally, an estimated 42% of Americans over the age of 55 will develop dementia. according to the National Institutes of Health.
The program is designed to increase understanding of dementia and to build more dementia-friendly communities.
“With all of the offerings that we provide, whether they are directed at personal caregivers, paid caregivers, family members, first responders or medical professionals, our goal is to support families who are experiencing different stages of dementia and different needs,” Valiante said.
Because dementia affects behavior and daily functioning, someone with the disease may experience crises that affect how first responders and home caregivers should respond, explained Valiante. An individual experiencing dementia may wander, display combativeness or experience agitation.
According to a 2018 study from Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, individuals with dementia are more likely to experience hospitalizations, most commonly due to suffocation, accidental drug poisoning and falls, than those without the condition. Additionally, individuals with dementia are more likely to experience homicide and abuse than those without.
By bolstering understanding of dementia symptoms, the understanding of dementia signs and related behaviors, first responders, caregivers and the community at large can better react in such situations, leading to better outcomes, Valiante explains.
“That’s really the need that we’re filling,” Valiante said. “It’s to help others not only better understand dementia, [and] achieve better outcomes and better respond to situations where someone with dementia is experiencing any kind of issue, escalation or crisis.”
Empath’s focus now is publicizing its dementia services to the public and ensuring that local communities can access them, Valiante explains.
The company’s dementia services align with Empath’s full-life care model, which focuses on supporting the company’s Florida-based community through all stages of life and healthcare needs, Valiante said.
“The biggest point that we really want to come across is that help is here,” Valiante said. “That’s what we are saying to everyone who will listen — that we’re here to support, to connect families with free local dementia education and support, and we want to be the trusted guide in the community for the dementia journey. That’s our mission.”