dementia

Occupation-Based and Team-Centered Dementia Care Education Transforms On-the-Job Training for Seasoned and Novice Home Care Workers.

TROY, Mich. — Of the 5.8 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia, most remain in their homes throughout the progression of the disease. This option can allow greater comfort, familiarity, and quality of life compared to institutional care. Although there are benefits to aging at home, research reveals individuals and families dealing with dementia at home face significant disease-related and social challenges; thus, there is an urgent and growing need for more dementia-capable home care services. In light of the situation, stakeholders—including policymakers, administrators, families, and people living with dementia—continuously emphasize interdisciplinary staff training to create a more dementia-capable workforce.

ComForCare and At Your Side Home Care have launched DementiaWise^®, an innovative occupation-based and team-centered training program designed to help their home care teams resolve dementia-related challenges. The DementiaWise program is changing the way home care agencies approach memory care training and client collaboration in the U. S. and Canada.

A program evaluation study conducted by student and faculty researchers at Duke University Occupational Therapy Doctorate Program and Partnerships for Health found home care workers who completed the DementiaWise training felt better equipped and empowered to collaboratively care for clients living with dementia and their families (self-efficacy). They had greater job satisfaction compared to teammates who had not yet completed DementiaWise.

Background
Developing a dementia-capable workforce has proven a challenge for the entire health care industry, including home care agencies. Despite an abundance of proven dementia care strategies and significant time spent in traditional lecture-style training, caregivers of all disciplines still struggle to apply knowledge after the training in real-life situations. Without effective on-the-job training and support, experts warn that well-meaning team members can burn out under the stress of dementia caregiving.

Need for New Workforce Training
ComForCare and At Your Side Home Care, together with partners at Duke University and Partnerships for Health, have turned their attention to an essential design flaw that experts believe has limited traditional dementia care training. Teams often lack opportunities to plan, test, evaluate, and reflect as a team on the process of adapting responses to real-world challenges.

“With that problem in mind, we knew that more hours in traditional training would be inadequate to improve life for our clients, their families, and our home care teams,” said Stephanie Wierzbicka, Manager of Strategic Health Programs for ComForCare.

Innovative Program Design
In DementiaWise, person-centered care is the team’s standard and the goal of their work. There are twelve DementiaWise strategies, which are the team’s tools of the trade, but the new program doesn’t just lecture the information and strategies to learners. Instead, learning is viewed as a dynamic process of problem-solving, reasoning, and reflection on experiences. The video training depicts a caregiver working with her team as they encounter common dementia-related challenges in home care. The team’s shared challenges help structure content and merge knowledge of the disease, evidence-based care strategies, the client, care environment, and the situation into best-practice solutions. Additional real stories from ComForCare employees in the video exemplify solutions fueled by knowledge of dementia care, creativity, and teamwork. In the new program, the team’s success is measured by an expanded ability to tap into learning in novel situations. The program emphasizes a generalizable process of problem-solving, not just dementia-specific content. ComForCare employees are featured as role models—mobilizing the knowledge and expertise in the team and lending practical tips from frontline caregivers, franchise managers, and award-winning occupational therapist and dementia care expert Dr. Heather McKay.

Program Evaluation Results
The research team (Dr. McKay in collaboration with students and faculty at Duke Occupational Therapy Doctorate Program) completed a mixed-methods study with positive results across a diverse sample of home care workers.

DementiaWise (DW) training was positively associated with higher self-efficacy among home care team members at ComForCare, as the odds of higher self-efficacy in those who watched/rewatched DW were 1.6 times the odds of higher self-efficacy than those who had not yet watched DW.

DementiaWise (DW) training was positively associated with higher satisfaction among home care team members at ComForCare, as the odds of higher satisfaction in those who watched DW were 2.2 times the odds of higher satisfaction in those who had not yet watched DW.
For more detailed study results, please go to: http://comforcare.com/dementia-care.

Participants attributed the positive outcomes to specific features of the program, including an emphasis on communication, helping clients live life to the fullest, seeing clients in their totality, and developing soft skills for caregiving on a team.

Dr. McKay said, “With the new DementiaWise^® program, home care agencies are empowering caregivers to engage with families and colleagues in a collaborative process of collecting knowledge (both information and hands-on skills), sharing it with each other, and calling on it to resolve everyday challenges in the home with teamwork.”

“As the demand for high-quality in-home dementia care grows, the home care industry must respond with data-driven evaluations, which demonstrate the impact of different on-the-job training programs and inform future workforce development. In doing so, ComForCare is actively creating a more dementia-capable workforce and supporting people living with the disease and their families to live longer, safer, and happier in their communities, improving life for everyone involved,” said a ComForCare representative.

DementiaWise training is available on-demand for ComForCare agencies nationwide and Best Life Brands partners. To find the nearest office, visit comforcare.com/locator.

TROY, Mich. — Great Place To Work® and Fortune magazine have recognized ComForCare/At Your Side Home Care as one of the 2022 Best Workplaces in Aging Services™.  This is ComForCare’s second time being named to this prestigious list—coming in at 2nd place in the At Home Care category. Earning this esteemed position confirms the positive workplace culture cultivated by ComForCare and At Your Side franchisees, as well as the brand’s emphasis on helping others live their best lives possible.

The Best Workplaces in Aging Services award is based on analysis of survey responses from more than 140,000 employees from Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies in the aging services industry. In that survey, 92% of ComForCare and At Your Side employees said that the organization is a great place to work.

“We are so grateful for our dedicated franchisees and the commitment to their caregivers who have made us a part of this list for the past two years,” said J.J. Sorrenti, CEO of Best Life Brands, parent company to ComForCare and At Your Side. “Our brand’s mission is to help others live their best lives. Caregivers are the heart of everything we do and it’s important to us that they feel valued and truly enjoy the vital work they do.”

The Best Workplaces in Aging Services list is highly competitive. Great Place to Work, the global authority on workplace culture, selected the list using rigorous analytics and confidential employee feedback. Companies were only considered if they are a Great Place to Work-Certified™ organization.

Great Place to Work is the only company culture award in America that selects winners based on how fairly employees are treated. Companies are assessed on how well they are creating a great employee experience that cuts across race, gender, age, disability status, or any aspect of who employees are or what their roles are.

“The Best Workplaces in Aging Services have a lot to be proud of,” says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. “They stepped up to support the well-being of their employees hard at work caring for high-risk populations at unprecedented levels throughout the pandemic. Congratulations to these great workplaces for their dedication to strong company cultures.”

In 2022, ComForCare and At Your Side Home Care also ranked as a Best Workplace for Millennials™.

Learn more about careers at ComForCare Home Care today, or refer someone to join this important field.

Great Place to Work selected the Best Workplaces in Aging Services by gathering and analyzing confidential survey responses from more than 140,000 employees from Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies in the aging services industry. Company rankings are derived from 60 employee experience questions within the Great Place to Work® Trust Index™ survey. Great Place to Work determines its lists using its proprietary For All™ methodology to evaluate and certify thousands of organizations in America’s largest ongoing annual workforce study. The study is based on over 1 million survey responses and data from companies representing more than 6.1 million employees, this year alone.

Great Place to Work is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees worldwide and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Their employee survey platform empowers leaders with the feedback, real-time reporting, and insights they need to make data-driven people decisions. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a great place to work For All. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com.

Activated Insights is the senior care division of Great Place to Work and provides employee and resident surveys to aging services providers. With expertise in senior care, Activated Insights is committed to transforming the aging experience by impacting the lives of seniors, families, staff, and others in senior care through research, data and technology. Learn more at activatedinsights.com.

ComForCare/At Your Side Ranked #74 on Fortune Magazine’s Annual List.

TROY, Mich. — ComForCare, a franchised provider of in-home caregiving services, has recently been named one of the 2022 Best Workplaces for Millennials™ by Fortune Magazine®. This marks the second consecutive year ComForCare has earned a place on this prestigious list. ComForCare ranked #74 on the list of 100, moving up from their previous position of #94 on last year’s listing.

“We are incredibly honored to once again be named as a best workplace for millennials,” said J.J. Sorrenti, CEO of Best Life Brands, parent company to ComForCare/At Your Side Home Care. “Our franchisees and caregivers are the lifeblood of our business, and it’s important to us that they truly enjoy the crucial work they do and have every tool they need to succeed. Earning a place on this prestigious list for the second year in a row validates the hard work ComForCare does to ensure the success of our franchisees. I can not wait to see how we will continue to grow throughout the next year.”

Fortune worked with long-standing research partner Great Place to Work to help in finding the best employers for those born between 1981 and 1997—a generation known for appreciating firms with strong values and frequently changing jobs. To determine millennials’ workplace preferences, Great Place to Work analyzed feedback representing more than 5.3 million U.S. employees. As a result, the 100 large companies on their list represent the best workplaces for millennials.

Learn more about careers at ComForCare and At Your Side Home Care today, or refer someone to join this vital field.

92% of employees in America and 82% of employees in Canada agreed that ComForCare/At Your Side Home Care is a great place to work.

TROY, Mich. — ComForCare, a franchised provider of in-home caregiving services, has recently received the honor of being named one of the 2022 Best Workplaces™ by Great Place To Work® in both the United States and Canada. This marks the second consecutive year ComForCare has earned this prestigious certification.

This award confirms the positive workplace culture ComForCare/At Your Side franchisees have cultivated, as well as the brand’s emphasis on helping others live their best lives.

“It’s an immense honor to be certified on the 2022 Best Workplaces in both the U.S. and Canada,” said J.J. Sorrenti, CEO of Best Life Brands, parent company to ComForCare/At Your Side Home Care. “Our franchisees put a great deal of effort toward caregiver satisfaction, which leads to increased loyalty and client peace of mind. Caregivers are the heart of everything we do and it’s important that they feel valued and truly enjoy the crucial work they do. This recognition validates our franchisees’ efforts.”

Great Place To Work, the global authority on workplace culture, certifies employers based on how fairly employees are treated. In addition, companies are assessed on how well they create an exceptional employee experience that cuts across race, gender, age, or any other aspect of an employee’s character or role.

Earning Great Place to Work Certification proves that a company has an excellent employee experience, validated by their own staff. Certification is entirely based on what employees say, especially how consistently they experience a high-trust workplace. Being Certified™ provides a company with a literal badge of excellence. It denotes to current employees, jobseekers and other companies within their industry that their organization is the best of the best.

Learn more about careers at ComForCare and At Your Side Home Care today, or refer someone to join this vital field.

About Great Place To Work®

Great Place To Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees worldwide and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Their employee survey platform empowers leaders with the feedback, real-time reporting and insights they need to make data-driven people decisions. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a Great Place To Work™ for all.

Learn more at greatplacetowork.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

TROY, Mich. — ComForCare, a franchised provider of in-home caregiving services, was recognized as one of the top 500 franchises in Entrepreneur‘s Franchise 500®, the world’s first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking. The 43^rd annual Entrepreneur Franchise 500® is a highly sought-after honor in the franchise industry. Recognized as an invaluable resource for potential franchisees, the 2022 Franchise 500® ranks ComForCare as 311 for its outstanding performance in areas including unit growth, financial strength and stability, and brand power.

Over its 43 years in existence, the Franchise 500® has become both a dominant competitive measure for franchisors and a primary research tool for potential franchisees. ComForCare’s position on the ranking is a testament to its strength as a franchise opportunity.

“It’s an immense honor to be included on Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 list,” said J.J Sorrenti, CEO of Best Life Brands, parent company to ComForCare and At Your Side Home Care. “Through the work of our dedicated team of caregivers we strive to help all of our clients achieve their best life. We are proud to receive this recognition, and I cannot wait to see the growth milestones we will achieve in 2022.”

In Entrepreneur‘s continuing effort to best understand and evaluate the ever-changing franchise marketplace, the company’s 43-year-old ranking formula continues to evolve as well. The editorial team researches and assesses several factors that go into the evaluation, including costs and fees, size and growth, support, brand strength, and financial strength and stability. Each franchise is given a cumulative score based on an analysis of more than 150 data points, and the 500 franchises with the highest cumulative scores become the Franchise 500® in ranking order.

“The past year has been one of the most challenging for businesses in recent memory, which made putting together our 43^rd annual Franchise 500 list more enlightening than ever,” says Entrepreneur Editor in Chief Jason Feifer. “The companies named to this year’s list showed us how being resilient, supportive, and nimble can help navigate extraordinary challenges and also underscore the grit and innovation that define entrepreneurship.”

To view ComForCare in the full ranking, visit www.entrepreneur.com/franchise500. Results can also be seen in the January/February 2022 issue of Entrepreneur, available on newsstands January 11th.

To learn more about ComForCare franchising, visit www.comforcare.com/franchising.