Being a care aide in an Alzheimer’s care or memory care residence has daily challenges and requires a special set of skills beyond merely providing personal care. The quality of a care aide can often be gauged by one specific skill: Everything that they do works towards minimizing memory care valdosta ga agitation in the residents. My reasoning for this rule is my belief that only by abandoning oneself to the topsy-turvy world that is dementia can one truly meet its challenges. In other words, to manage dementia, you must play by its rules!
In truth, the relative dearth of paraprofessional health care workers and their almost infinite opportunity for occupational mobility present significant recruitment and retention temazepam 20mg challenges to memory care residence administrators. A high personal care staff turnover may be an indication of management problems and may point to inadequate training and support for the aide staff. Consider how difficult it is to provide adequate training and support to new staff while providing the highest level of service to residents when there is a revolving door of employees. I say this to temper your standards and to offer some perspective into the daily challenges of running an Alzheimer’s care residence. These challenges notwithstanding, alarmas it is very possible to create and retain a superior team of resident assistants/aides and mastery over this challenge is a sure sign of a strong administrative team.
When you do take a tour, of course, you will want to:
Meet the Direct Care Staff
1. Again, Cake carts how do the staff appear? Are they wearing appropriate identification and clothing that distinguishes them from visitors? Do the staff appear busy or does it look like staff social hour with little attention being paid to the environment or to the residents? In a memory care residence, there are always tasks to be performed.
2. How do the staff interact with the residents? Are they deferential or are they condescending? I would strongly urge you to talk to staff at random. Ask how long they have worked there. Many of these kinds of residence will turn over 100% of their staff annually. Ask about the special features of the memory care residence and their opinions about the helpfulness of these features. You can tell a lot about how well the company’s mission worldofkink and philosophy are being “owned” by staff by their responses to questions about the “selling points” of the facility.
3. In some states, resident assistants are permitted to pass medications with some training but absolutely no knowledge of pharmacology or physiology. Ask if this is the case where you tour and, if so, inquire about the training, both past and ongoing, given to the aides to help avoid medication errors.
4. Ask about specialized training in managing dementia aide staff receive.
Strong administration is essential to the smooth running of any memory care residence, but the most essential services are provided by the direct care staff. For this, weight loss these underpaid workers deserve much credit and respect. In Part 3 we will look at how your approach with the staff of a memory care residence can ensure that your loved one receives every consideration and how to maintain your professional boundaries for everyone’s benefit.
