Dementia tool assists homes with education plans
DENA provides framework and resources on dementia care education
Friday June 27, 2008 -- Camille Jensen
Staff members in long-term care homes say the new Dementia Education Needs Assessment (DENA) tool is a useful resource when planning for training and education programs.

DENA, established by the Education for Healthy and Safe Places to Live and Work Collaborative Group, is available free online.

DENA’s main goal is to support decision making in the homes for ongoing dementia education and knowledge transfer.

Sue Dunn, registered nurse at Bay Haven Senior Care Community, says the tool was helpful to articulate the next steps the Collingwood long-term care home should take for programming.

“It helped me see what areas were missing as far as dementia training went,” says Dunn who is also the home’s psychogeriatric resource person.

Dunn says the DENA tool offers homes a matrix that outlines different education programs and the type of learner most suitable for the education. If staff are currently trained on a certain program, the DENA tool would recommend moving forward to more advanced education.

By using the matrix, Dunn says homes have a clear idea of their individual needs, which results in more purposeful education.

“It was a very clear plan (that) you could follow along with,” says Dunn.“I did find it to be a very useful tool.”

Becky Li, director of resident care at Mon Sheong, says DENA was an asset when determining staff capacity at the Richmond long-term care home.

Li says the home and staff are quite new and by using the tool, the home was able to tailor a dementia education program to increase staff knowledge.

“It has helped us gain better knowledge in that specialty,” says Li. “They have more confidence (and) they know how to differentiate symptoms.”

The DENA tool is also meant to help homes determine if more education is the appropriate answer. Nancy Cooper, director of policy and professional development for the Ontario Long-Term Care Association (OLTCA), says more education is not always the solution and the tool encourages staff to look at alternatives such as existing staff capacity, transferable knowledge and outside resources.

”I think the tool is extremely valuable,” says Cooper. “(It’s) helping people to decide how to use education to actually increase real knowledge building (and) transfer.”

If it is decided that new education is the most useful option, DENA recommends ways to utilize the knowledge throughout the home. Homes are asked to identity their expectations, expected results and pursue follow-up training once the education is finished.

The DENA tool is available online at the Alzheimer’s Knowledge Exchange’s website.

Related Story:
DENA tool allows organizations to assess dementia education needs


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