Helping Hand has become the first South Australian aged care provider to offer the nation-leading Meaningful Engagement Mentoring (MEM) dementia training program to its workers.
The MEM program is delivered through Dementia Australia’s Centre for Dementia Learning and runs over several months, assisting the participants to become mentors to other staff once they’ve completed the course, while also enabling them to develop and implement purposeful activities together.
Helping Hand, which operates memory support units at its North Adelaide, Mawson Lakes, Parafield Gardens, Clare, Port Pirie, Golden Grove, Jamestown and Lightsview aged care homes, is funding the dementia training program.
“Helping Hand has designed a scholarship fund to elevate our professional development and I am heartened by the numbers of staff who are committed to building their knowledge bank. It certainly demonstrates the appetite among the aged care workforce for continual learning so they can provide the highest quality care possible,” said Helping Hand CEO Chris Stewart.