Dementia Training for Agencies & Facilities
Are you a dementia care agency or memory care facility struggling to find effective Alzheimer’s and dementia training materials for your staff? Do you have high turnover due to burnout? We can help.
Reduce caregiver stress
We provide our DAWN Partners with ongoing access to DAWN dementia training courses for their caregivers and staff. Find out what a difference a strength-based approach to Alzheimer’s and dementia can make in reducing caregiver stress.
There is hope in dementia. It lies in how we provide care.
Online certification for caregivers
We know it’s difficult to watch your staff struggle. Caregiving takes a toll on people—especially dementia caregiving. Spending time with someone experiencing dementia can be exhausting and frustrating. Even the kindest individuals will fight discouragement when they are tired and frustrated. You want your caregivers to be successful. Really, you just want everyone to get along…
Because you care about your staff’s wellbeing.
Strength-based care for clients
In an ideal world, your residents would feel safe and at home. They would have a sense of well-being, knowing that the people around them are on their side, looking out for them. This is the beauty of DAWN, strength-based dementia care. Caregivers who have had training in the DAWN Method say their clients are happier and more at peace. Over time, the caregiver-client relationship can be transformed into one of companionship and trust.
Because you want them to feel at home.
“I work with a client who has many caregivers, but only two of us use the DAWN method. When we DAWN caregivers have a shift immediately following some of the others, we find her more confused and anxious, voicing her despair about how “stupid” she is. As a DAWN caregiver, I know my job is to protect her dignity and help her live her life at her own pace, in the comfort of any fond memories she is able to retain. When I use the DAWN tools that are habilitative and person-centered care, and can be so easily learned and applied, it restores her wellbeing.”
D.W., DDCS
Professional caregiver in Pullman, WA
Because your staff cares about their wellbeing.
Become a DAWN Partner.
Join our DAWN Partner program and train your caregiving staff with the DAWN Method® dementia certification course. Most caregivers spend 8 weeks completing the 36 short videos and quizzes with little or no supervision.
The DAWN dementia training program will teach your staff how to work with dementia patients and avoid inadvertently causing negative behaviors, leading to more peace and less stress for both caregivers and your clients and residents.
Because you want a more peaceful care environment.
“When I have the privilege of giving even glimpses of the DAWN method to a family, it’s as if they get to take a deep breath for the first time in a really long time.”
Jill Couch, OT, DDCS, DAWN Trainer
Professional caregiver & owner of Better People Care in Fort Collins, CO
DAWN Partner program ~ Table of Contents
1—Struggling to slow caregiver turnover?
When employees experience success and happiness at work, they stay longer. Yet working with people who are experiencing dementia is exhausting and difficult—unless you know how to recognize and work with the strengths and skills dementia does not take away.
“I do not see the problems caused by dementia as ‘dementia-related behaviors’, but instead as the emotional distress that people experience when they undergo progressive cognitive impairment.”
Judy Cornish
Creator of the DAWN Method
Ready to help your caregivers be more successful?
“Being a caregiver is one of the most rewarding jobs there is. But without a compassionate and understanding method like the DAWN Method, it can be difficult to find the source of the behavior and turn it into something positive in a loving manner. I have a client who is very determined to feel in control. I use the tools of the DAWN Method every day with her. It took a few months, but she now feels completely in control in several areas, despite her dementia. Before I had been trained in the DAWN Method, I had nothing but common sense and compassion guiding me. Now I feel that with creativity and the DAWN tools I can help anyone who needs care.”
Erica R., DDCS
Professional caregiver in Auston, WA
2—How is DAWN dementia & Alzheimer’s training different?
The medical model of dementia care used widely today is largely based on the model of “fix the patient,” yet we know there is no “fix” for dementia. What if we rethink our model? What if we focused on what people experiencing dementia can do, instead of what they cannot? This is the basis of the DAWN Method—strength-based approach to dementia care. Because, can we really be person-centered if we don’t understand what a person can and cannot do?
Strength-based dementia training for caregivers and administrative staff
Everyone functions better with consistency, and that doesn’t change when dementia comes into the picture. You’ll see a marked increase in companionship and decrease in behaviors when everyone at your care facility or agency is using the same approach. With the DAWN Partner dementia training program, you can train new hires individually or enroll groups of caregivers in the course as teams—you have full control. Your administrative staff can complete their shortened version of the training on their own. The yearly subscription includes an online help video and handbook, and certificates and certification are automated, so most employees are able to complete the program without assistance.
Meeting the emotional needs caused by dementia
Although dementia patients** become unable to recall, interpret or express ideas regarding their experiences, they are still having experiences. Their experiences will be causing them pain and relief, happiness and sadness, fear and anger—just like everyone else. Yet, because they are losing the skills we normally use to change and shape our moods, they become stuck in negativity—often fear or frustration—until a companion changes their mood for the positive.
If your caregivers are conscious of this and learn how to shape the mood in dementia (read article about mood management), your clients will feel increasingly safe and comfortable with them. You’ll see your client/caregiver relationships improve when your staff come to realize that they have the power to change the mood whenever they are with someone who is experiencing dementia. Mood management is the first tool that we teach in the DAWN Method.
* *NOTE: We do not like to refer to people as “dementia patients,” but that is the phrase that most people use when searching for dementia or Alzheimer’s training. We prefer to say “people experiencing dementia,” instead.
3—What is included in the DAWN Partner dementia training program?
- “Preparing for Dementia” video series to help your clients’ families work with you. As a DAWN Partner you may share this video as a part of your family orientation materials. Sign up for our newsletter & get the Video Series.
- Online dementia training courses for all staff: 36 videos and quizzes that can be watched as many times as needed for competency. (Demo of course available on request.)
- Caregivers trained in strength-based, person-centered dementia care with two-year certification for each caregiver as a DAWN Dementia Care Specialist (DDCS).
- Consultation and problem-solving with DAWN Trainers.
- DAWN Dementia Care Specialist Handbook for employee quick reference.
- Nationwide recognition as a DAWN Partner.
- Listing on the “DAWN Partner Agencies ” page on the DAWN Method website.
- Use of the DAWN Partner logo on promotional materials.
- Option to purchase our DAWN HomeCare Online Dementia Class for Families in bulk in order to provide dementia care training to the families you serve.
Sample video from our dementia & Alzheimer’s training for caregivers
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Ready to improve your care environment?
“I just completed the DAWN Method of caregiving course. I found the program has helped reduce stress levels substantially for both the client and myself. My client tends to get upset when he can’t find things. I found the method of chattering while looking really calms him down. I highly recommend this program to families dealing with dementia. Thank you Judy, I really enjoyed working with you.”
Lisa H., DDCS
Professional caregiver in Spokane, WA
4—More about the DAWN Method of dementia care
The DAWN Method of dementia care was developed by Judy Cornish as she worked with her own clients who were experiencing Alzheimer’s or dementia. If you would like to get a feel for what the DAWN Method is like, we recommend that you start with “What is the DAWN Method of dementia care?” and then explore the list of articles below.
Topics from the dementia training materials
Below are some blog articles that introduce topics covered in the DAWN Method.
CULTIVATING EMPATHY
What is it like to have dementia? Read Judy’s Manifesto for Dementia with Dignity.
SKILLS KEPT AND LOST
- Losing rational thought: Why DAWN Focuses on the Loss of Rational Thought
- Keeping intuitive thought: Mindfulness and Dementia–Living in the Intuitive World
- Keeping the experiential self, losing the remembering self: The Experiential Self and the Remembering Self
- Losing mindfulness, keeping mindlessness: Mindlessness—the Benefits of Automatic Thinking for DementiaBlog articl1. Having empathy—What is it like to have dementia? Read Judy’s [Manifesto for *Dementia with Dignity*](https://the-dawn-method.local/manifesto-for-dementia-with-dignity/)
EMOTIONS CAUSED BY DEMENTIA
- How to Enhance Conversations in Dementia
- How Should I Respond When They Don’t Make Sense?
- Is it Dishonest to Go Along with Altered Realities?
- Turning No into Yes: Reaching Underlying Issues of Disempowerment
COMMUNICATING WITH SOMEONE WITH DEMENTIA
- Understanding the cause of dementia-related behaviors: Behaviors Aren’t the Problem, It’s the Emotions That Cause Them
- The dementia caregiver’s Superpower—YOU control mood: Shaping the Mood in Dementia
- Our first article in a series on dementia and anger: Mean Dementia: Dementia and Being Mean to Family?
DEMENTIA WITH DIGNITY
The following articles cover topics that are taught in the later lessons of the DAWN Method.
- Supporting a Sense of Self in Dementia (autonomy and dementia)
- Give the Gift of Dignity in Dementia
- How to Enable Choice, Not Restrict It
- Three Dementia Caregiver Tips for Preventing Hurt Feelings
Dementia care books by Judy Cornish
Judy has published two books on the topic of dementia care. The Dementia Handbook: How to Provide Dementia Care at Home, the “why”, is short (108 pages) and covers the philosophy of the DAWN Method, explaining why it works. Dementia with Dignity: Living Well with Alzheimer’s or Dementia Using the DAWN Method, the “how”, is longer (247 pages) and goes into more detail on how to provide care. It covers all the tools of the DAWN Method in depth with many real life examples taken from Judy’s experiences working with her clients. In Dementia with Dignity, Judy also explains how the DAWN Method came to be and gives ideas for further study.
5—Next steps to becoming a DAWN Partner…
Providing dementia care is difficult and exhausting if you don’t understand the emotional needs that are causing what we refer to as dementia-related behaviors, or which skills people continue to use.
Care agencies and facilities can lower staff turnover and burnout by training their staff how to work with the skills dementia does not take away. Become a DAWN Partner and have this person-centered, strength-based dementia caregiver training program at your fingertips.
Contact us today to learn more about DAWN dementia and Alzheimer’s training and certification for caregivers and about becoming a DAWN Partner.
