SHS Caregiver Habilitation Training

Habilitation Training (HT) is a comprehensive behavioral approach to caring for people with dementia. It focuses not on what the person has lost due to the illness, but on his or her remaining abilities. HT creates and maintains positive emotional states through the course of each day. The dementia patient’s capabilities, independence and morale are consistently engaged to produce a state of psychological well-being. In this way, difficult symptoms can be reduced or eliminated, even as the illness progresses.

Habilitation Therapy also benefits the patient’s family, friends and professional caregivers. The ability to enjoy time together and to share a relationship, activities, and feelings with a person with dementia can be uplifting for everyone involved. HT can reduce much of the stress and workload involved in living with Alzheimer’s Disease and other related dementias.

MODULE TOPICS

• Understanding Alzheimer’s and Dementia
• Habilitation Therapy
• Knowing and Understanding the Individual
• Communication Skills: We Need to Know the Language
• Does the Physical Environment Make a Difference?
• Our Approach to Personal Care
• Activity and Purposeful Engagement
• Behavior as Communication: Understanding and Responding
• Understanding and Working with Families