Home care workers in Oregon well trained to provide quality care

Debi Ortega of Cottage Grove has been a home care worker for almost 11 years. “I love working with and helping elderly people,” she said. “There is so much to learn from them, so many life experiences they have to share. I feel working with them is like having many wonderful grandparents.”

Joyce Beedle, RN, BSN, a nationally known expert on Alzheimer's and Dementia, taught a course recently for Oregon's home care workers on the early signs of dementia and practical tips for daily care. Here, she demonstrates a bathing technique using one of the students as an example. In Oregon about 11,000 home care workers are active at any one time and the state provides training to ensure home care workers provide quality care.

Debi recently joined a group of other home care workers at a Home Care Commission-sponsored training on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia held in Salem. Joyce Beedle, a registered nurse and a nationally known expert on dementia taught the early signs of dementia, the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, and practical tips for daily care.

The Home Care Commission provides training opportunities for home care workers and others including adult foster home providers, family caregivers, state employees who provide direct care, and as of January 1, 2011, personal support workers who are employed by persons with developmental disabilities or mental illnesses.

The training classes offered by the commission include bathing and grooming, blindness and low vision, diabetes basics, grief and loss, heart health, helping caregivers fight fraud and abuse, keeping it professional, respiratory care, and much more.

“The trainings always teach me new ideas and new ways to help,” Debi said. “No matter how much experience you have, you always learn something new and are better prepared to handle all situations,” she said.

Since the winter of 2006, the Home Care Commission has provided 2,390 training classes to more than 29,000 participants. The Home Care Commission’s registry and referral system has a yearly average of 17,000 career home care workers in Oregon with about 11,000 active at any one time.

“We are committed to providing training opportunities for home care workers and personal support workers and the consumers who employ them,” said Cheryl Miller, the commission’s executive director. “We value the importance of a quality workforce and workers like Debi who are committed to life-long learning. Our training program is accessible to workers statewide from the Portland metro area to Ontario, Klamath Falls, Astoria, Brookings, and throughout our state. It is important to the commission that quality services are available to seniors and people with disabilities in every area of Oregon,” she said.

For more information on the professional training program for Oregon’s home care workers or to learn more about the Home Care Commission, visit the commission’s website.