The Otto Bremer Foundation Ecumen has awarded Ecumen a $118,950 grant to provide educational training sessions in rural North Dakota for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

The Otto Bremer Foundation Ecumen has awarded Ecumen a $118,950 grant to provide educational training sessions in rural North Dakota for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

The grant will allow Ecumen to adapt its Awakenings training to the in-home caregiver and host training sessions throughout rural North Dakota.  Ecumen has received national recognition for its Awakenings program — an approach to dementia care focused on replacing the use of highly sedating drugs with individualized care and holistic therapies emphasizing human connections.

“The vast majority of people with dementia live at home — not in senior care communities,” said Judy Blaseg, Ecumen Executive Vice President of Philanthropy. “We’re so grateful the Otto Bremer Foundation recognizes the need for helping caregivers — especially those in deeply rural communities — get the training and services they need to care for their loved ones at home.”

Blaseg said Ecumen staff will conduct five educational training sessions around North Dakota over the course of a year, covering a wide range of topics related to dementia care.  The areas selected for the training sessions are Grafton, Rugby, Carrington, Ashley and Mott/Hettinger.  The sessions will begin in late fall of 2015 and continue through 2016. They will be free to family caregivers and open to professional caregivers at a nominal charge.

After the training sessions, attendees will be provided follow-up support and assistance. Ecumen professionals will contact participants to talk about their specific needs and help direct them to services in their area.

This method of follow-up is modeled after a successful medication management program underway at Ecumen rehabilitation care centers where a simple 3-day and 21-day post-discharge phone call to discuss medications has substantially reduced re-hospitalizations. “We want to give people the resources they need to keep their loved ones safe and in the home for as long as possible,” Blaseg said.