Supplement: Benefits of Taking the Savvy Training
What is the Purpose of This Section?
This section will give you basic information that you can use to inform people about the benefits of taking the Savvy Caregiver Training Program. Detailed information for you about dementia and its symptoms will be found elsewhere in the Trainer’s Manual.
What is the Savvy Caregiver Training Program?
The Savvy Caregiver Training Program helps people who give care to elders that have dementia. “Elders” may mean those that are over age 65, but it can also refer to people of any adult age that are given high status and prestige in the community. Caregivers need information about how to adapt to the hard things that dementia caregiving requires. Caregivers will learn skills that result in less stress for them, family members, and the elder with dementia. Savvy Caregiver Training results in higher quality of life for the whole family, particularly the elder with dementia.
Who are Caregivers?
Anyone who helps to care for elders is a “Caregiver.” Caregivers may also be younger grandchildren as well as family friends. If someone has an elder in their home or family and they help the elders with things from advice to bathing to going to the clinic to keeping them safe, then they are a caregiver. Many times, caregivers do more and more as time goes on and do not realize that they are doing so many important things for the elder.
What if Someone is a Caregiver?
Caregivers are the best medicine possible for the elder! Caregivers need to keep their strength. Caregivers are the critical link to manage the elder’s well-being. Caregivers show the elder they are cared for and loved, even if the elder cannot always remember the verbal “I love you”s, they can feel a sense of security and calm. Caregivers are always giving their care and love to the elder, regardless of the elder’s ability to directly respond. Elders with confusion, memory loss, and thinking problems need the caregiver’s loving, skillful presence. The Savvy Caregiver Training Course will help the caregiver get the skills to give the best care to the elder and to cope with the situation so that they too can have a good quality of life.
How Will the Savvy Caregiver Training Help Me?
Savvy training will give caregivers:
- Knowledge about the elder’s condition and how it changes.
- Ways to cope with the stresses of caregiving.
- Ways to understand what is happening to the elder.
- Things to do so that the elder and caregiver are happier.
- New ways to show their love, respect, and patience for the elder by learning how to give high quality at-home care.
Why Take the Savvy Course?
Receiving the Savvy training will help caregivers remain able to provide care over the course of the elder’s time of memory and thinking loss. Savvy training may also make the elder happier and more secure because the caregiver has learned new skills. Caregivers’ new skills will be put into practice on a daily basis. By using the new skills, caregivers will become very able to provide the best care for their loved one.
Is There Only One Caregiver?
American Indian and Alaska Native people place great importance on family and community. The caregiver that has learned Savvy caregiving skills will be able to pass on those new skills to other family members so that the whole family can be better able to help the elder. Taking a family approach can also help to give everyone a purpose in the life of the elder whose memory and thinking abilities are changing.
What Do I Have to Do?
Take the Savvy course. You will be given a guidebook for caregivers that has information for you to keep. Your trainer will help you through the guidebook. There are also visual aids to watch and discuss.
