18 June 2009

A leading care agency has claimed that training is ‘vital’ for carers working with patients suffering from dementia. A new report, published this week, by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Dementia has suggested that many people with dementia are receiving poor care due to badly-trained carers.

It is estimated that more than 700,000 Britons suffer from dementia-related illnesses and two-thirds of these (approximately 460,000) live in their own homes. The report, ‘Prepared to Care’, highlights the lack of specific training available to carers working with patients suffering from dementia.

With 24-hour live-in care an increasingly popular alternative to residential care homes, a Suffolk care agency has invested heavily in training to ensure that its care assistants are trained to understand and manage the needs of those who suffer from dementia

Nicola Warner, managing director of Saxmundham-based Christies Care says: “It is vital that care assistants are properly trained and experienced to work with patients suffering from dementia. We have worked closely with The Alzheimer’s Society to establish a strong training programme for our care assistants and we fully support the findings of the APPG report.”

She continued: “We have worked hard to ensure that our carers are properly supported, and our comprehensive training includes an exam which is externally marked and fully accredited by The Alzheimer’s Society. We identified the need for specialist dementia training in early 2008, and we have a great team here who are continuously working to ensure our training is to the highest standard possible.”

Christies Care currently has over 80 clients with various stages of the illness who live in their own homes and have a care assistant 24 hours of the day. The next dementia training course will take place in July, with a repeat session held in October.

Christies Care is an accredited OCR centre for health and social care training and is a British Institute of Learning Disability (BILD) satellite training centre. The company has invested in modern training facilities and accommodation for care assistants whilst they train at its Saxmundham base in Suffolk.

For more information about Christies Care, telephone 0844 477 6460 or visit www.christiescare.com