respect.”
Home Instead is one of the largest senior care organizations in the world with network of more than 1,000 franchise offices in 17 global markets.
“We are looking to make a difference in the world and enhance the lives of our aging seniors,” said Melissa Leon, general manager for Home Instead’s central San Diego office in Chula Vista.
Leon said Home Instead offers a free, 30-minute training program. One objective of the program, she said, is to enlighten employers providing “insight into the disease and offering tips to help businesses handle some issues that may arise.”
The Alzheimer’s-instruction program is important for a number of reasons.
“We have such a huge population already — and it’s only going to grow,” said Leon adding hard data compiled by Home Instead’s research team shows Alzheimer’s has a direct negative impact on business.
“This (disease) has a personal impact on families, as well as an economic affect on business,” Leon said noting 74 percent of the families of Alzheimer’s patients indicate “they’ve become more isolated,” while 87 percent noted they leave their homes less frequently with their afflicted loved ones. Eighty-five percent expressed a “reduced quality of life,” with 55 percent reporting they stay at home “because it’s just easier.”
Leon said families are reluctant to take Alzheimer’s sufferers to public places because “they fear a business can be busy and confusing to their loved ones who may become anxious, or disoriented or who may get lost. They stay at home (instead) so they don’t have to deal with it.”
Leon said Home Instead’s business-training program can be done at the workplace or online. She said the half-hour program gives the do’s and don’t’s of how to/not to respond to the disease. She said the program discusses “signs” and “triggers” detailing “common behavior” that may arise with Alzheimer’s sufferers offering “suggestions for handling such situations, how to interact with someone who may have the disease.”
“We train employees to speak slowly and directly to people with Alzheimer’s giving them time to process it (information),” Leon said.
Offering one example, Leon said it would be preferable for an employee in a furniture company to show an Alzheimer’s patient and their family a select group of couches of the same color or style, rather than offer them a room full of different choices which could overwhelm the afflicted person.
A businessowner can schedule a Home Instead Alzheimer’s training session by calling 858-277-3722.
