Dementia Care

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28 Australian Journal of Dementia Care December 2016/January 2017 Vol 5 No 6
Over 60% of aged and health care staff
working with people living with
dementia are in the vocational sector.
Dementia TrainingAustralia has a key
emphasis on providing a learning pathway
appropriate and accessible for these
workers.
For the first time inAustralia, Dementia
Training Australia will deliver a
nationally consistent vocational dementia
specialist accredited training course that
ensures a consistent learning and
assessment experience regardless of
where the student is.
The course, named Dementia Essentials,
will be available acrossAustralia in both
regional andmetropolitan areas. This
unique level of consistency will provide
confidence to the sector that staff having
undertaken this training will have been
exposed to the same high-quality learning
experience regardless of where in the
country they have undertaken the training.
With an emphasis on developing new
knowledge, improving practical care skills
and exploring emotional intelligence, the
Dementia Essentials course is set to become
the foundation vocational learning
qualification for aged and health care
dementia practice inAustralia.
Accredited
Alzheimer’sAustralia will deliver the
course nationally as a member of Dementia
TrainingAustralia. Alzheimer’sAustralia’s
experienced training teams will ensure
high-quality dementia specialist content is
the most current and evidence-based
approach to person-centred care of people
living with dementia available.
The three-day course is based on the
competencies and assessment requirements
of the new accredited unit CHCAGE005 –
Provide support to people living with dementia.
This unit can contribute to relevant
Certificate 3 and Certificate 4 qualifications.
This course is suitable for people
currently working in aged care, health care
and community services who regularly
provide assistance to people living with
dementia. It is an accredited unit with
written andworkplace assessment
requirements. Upon completion,
participants will receive a Statement of
Attainment that will enable them to claim
credits if they plan to undertake a related
qualification. The attainment of
qualificationwill be managed under one
national Registered Training Organisation
approach and issued byAlzheimer’s
Australia Vic (RTOCode 2512).
Course content
Dementia Essentials will have a foundation
learning focus and cover the following
topic areas:
•Aperson-centred approach and effective
communication.
• The nature of dementia and its impacts.
•Understanding behaviour and effective
responses.
•Activities to promote well-being.
•Workplace issues, community support
and services available.
Delivery and assessment
Dementia TrainingAustralia recognises
that the most effective way to bring about
culture and practice change is to have a
group of staff from the same service train
together, drawing from each other’s
experiences and supporting each other to
bring about change. Dementia Essentials
can be delivered in the workplace in a
format that is convenient to the
organisation andmeets each organisation’s
staff needs. There will also be a number of
‘open’ courses held across the country that
individual workers can access.
In order to obtain the Dementia
Essentials qualification students will be
expected to undertake an observed
assessment of practice in their workplace.
Dementia TrainingAustralia believes this
opportunity to show learning-to-practice
change is an important outcome of the
training.
To be eligible for the Dementia
Essentials program, students must be
directly working with people living with
dementia and be able to be supervised
interacting with two people living with
dementia to satisfy the workplace
assessment criteria.
Support for supervisors undertaking the
observations will be available and
students will be supported by the
Alzheimer’s Australia education teams
when necessary to assist them in meeting
the assessment criteria.
Support for students who may have
language, literacy or numeracy difficulties
will also be available and assessment
methods can be adapted to suit the needs
of the student.
With a target of over 5000 students a
year, Dementia TrainingAustralia is very
excited to see this nationally consistent
training become available and the
expected positive impact on well-being of
people living with dementia receiving
services that having a highly skilled and
knowledgeable service workforce will
have.
For more information on Dementia
Essentials or to book a training course visit:
education/dementia-training-australia or
Dementia Essentials vocational
training a first for Australia
The new national Dementia Essentials course is set to become the foundation
vocational learning qualification for aged and health care dementia practice in Australia.
Jason Burton, Director Dementia Training Australia, Alzheimer’s Australia WA, explains
DTA recognises that the most effective way
to bring about culture and practice change is
to have a group of staff from the same service
train together. Photo: Alzheimer’s Australia NSW