Critical Workforce Gaps in Dementia Education and Training

Abstract

The US Department of Health and Human Services and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, through private sector support, sponsored the National Research Summit on Dementia Care: Building Evidence for Services and Supports (Summit) in 2017. Various workgroups were asked to address topics of interest in dementia care and develop recommendations addressing the goals of the Summit. Workforce education and training was identified to be a key issue. As a result, a Workforce Development Workgroup (the Workgroup) was created and addressed two of the Summitʼs goals. The first goal is to improve the quality of care and support provided to persons living with dementia and those who care for them. The second goal is to accelerate the development, evaluation, translation, implementation, and scaling‐up of evidence‐based and evidence‐informed services for persons living with dementia, their families, and caregivers. In this article, the Workgroup identified gaps in educating and training a dementia‐capable workforce. The Workgroup consisted of an interprofessional team with expertise in dementia workforce development from academia, professional organizations, and the federal government. Four recommendations are presented concerning research topics that will advance the education and training of a dementia‐capable workforce, which includes health professions students, faculty, practitioners, direct care workers, persons living with dementia, and those who care for them. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:625–629, 2020

Research Recommendations to Address Dementia Workforce Development Needs

“…For the first National Research Summit on Care, Services and Supports for Persons with Dementia and Their Caregivers in 2017 (2017 Summit) [2,3], six workforce recommendations were proposed. The execution of these recommendations should be the responsibility of academia, health systems, primary care delivery systems, community-based organizations, professional organizations, and federal, state and local agencies.…”

“…The first National Research Summit on Care, Services and Supports for Persons with Dementia and Their Caregivers in 2017 (2017 Summit) [2,3] convened a stakeholder group on workforce development that presented six recommendations addressing four themes: (1) Recruitment and retention of a dementia-capable workforce; (2) Financing and cost of workforce education and training; (3) Interprofessional education and training for care coordination and management of dementia care; and (4) Translation and implementation of effective care. The 2020 Workgroup identified new recommendations, while recognizing the continued value and applicability of the original Workforce Development Workgroup recommendations for 2017 (see Figure 1).…”

Dementia-Friendly “Design”: Impact on COVID-19 Death Rates in Long-Term Care Facilities Around the World

“…In China, where LTC is an emerging concept, 70% of Nursing Home administrators only had junior high school degrees, and for direct caregivers, 76% of them were illiterate or only had primary school education [5]. Common staffing problems in LTC worldwide include poor dementia-specific training, relegation of most jobs to women (often immigrant women), low pay, poor benefits, stressful working conditions, high rates of on-the-job injury, and fewer opportunities for advancement and development, which leads to job dissatisfaction and high turnover [2,4,29,[34][35][36]. Gaps in training have been identified in many countries and policies are now being developed to provide training unique to dementia care.…”

“…PWD are vulnerable to infectious diseases due to poor overall lung health and frailty, often compounded by chronic co-morbidities. PWD can account for 50% or more of all residents in LTC facilities worldwide [1][2][3][4][5]. If other cognitive impairments are included in the statistics (brain trauma, stroke, infectious disease), this number can increase to 80%.…”

“This experience changed my life”: inspiring college students to pursue careers caring for persons living with dementia

“…Yet 75% of primary care physicians have had "no" (25%) or "very little" training (50%) in dementia diagnosis and care (Alzheimer's Association, 2020). In addition, physicians, nurses, social workers, nursing assistants, and direct caregivers are badly needed but are slow to enter the field (Weiss et al, 2020).…”