A seven-week education and training course, designed to support people caring for a family member or friend living with dementia, will be held at Mallow Day Centre next month.
Hosted by The Alzheimer Society of Ireland (ASI), the ‘Insights into Dementia – Informing and Empowering Family Carers’ course covers a range of practical and relevant topics, including communication strategies, understanding dementia, navigating changing relationships, promoting physical activity, and maintaining proper nutrition.
Caring for a loved one with dementia can be a challenging isolating experience and the Family Carer Training course will be delivered by Lena O’Sullivan, Nurse Manager at St. Mary’s Daycare Centre in Mallow and a family carer training tutor. Lena had been with The ASI for five years and has over 30 years of experience in acute and community-based care.
“The value of these courses is not only in the information provided but also in the supportive environment they create for family carers,” she said.
Drawing from her experience in delivering family carer training, Ms. O’Sullivan believes “the ethos of the ‘carer looking after themselves as well as caring for their loved one living with dementia’ underpins the course” and highlights that carers support each other during the training.
“Family carers provide invaluable support to one another and share their insights, recognising the common challenges they face. As I always say, ‘we learn from each other.’ It is extremely rewarding to meet family carers in these courses and help them on their journeys with their loved ones. Knowledge is power as they say. The feedback I have received about the sharing of ideas between family members and the learning experience in this course has been great and makes the whole experience very rewarding.”
ENROLMENT
The course will run at Mallow Day Centre, Court View, New Rd, Mallow every Tuesday evening from 7pm to 9.30pm, starting on 5th November and ending on 17th December. To enrol, contact 1800 341 341 or email familycarertraining@alzheimer.ie.
The course is free to attend, but donations are welcome to support the work of The ASI.
The organisation is delivering courses in several counties nationwide. For more information, visit alzheimer.ie.
