Informal caregivers play a central role in the provision of long-term care in Europe. They are often family members and friends who provide care, despite input from health professionals and regardless of whether the patient is at home or in a formal care facility.
Although such informal caregivers often take on the role and derive personal benefits from informal care, such as having a meaningful role, a purpose and commitment to providing care. Being a caregiver can also bring significant physical, psychological, economic and domestic challenges. Such challenges and stresses, also known as caregiver burden, can affect aspects of caregiver well-being.
The SupportCARE project was born as an opportunity to empower and support family caregivers of people with dementia and provide them with the resilience and self-care tools to care for themselves and break the stigma surrounding dementia. Because knowledge can also lead to greater competence.
The specific goal is to offer an e-learning regarding dementia to prevent misunderstandings around the topic and increase knowledge.
In this basic module on dementia, we’re here to help you learn about dementia, its various forms and how individuals experiencing it may perceive their world. This module is designed to provide a foundational understanding of these aspects.
Target audience: Informal caregivers for persons with dementia. Any caregiver or intern looking for basic information about dementia.
Duration: There are two e-learning modules, labeled as Module 1 – What is dementia and Module 2 – Coping with dementia – Communication.
Module 1 takes approximately 30 minutes and module 2 about 20 minutes.
Istructions: to access the modules select “Curriculum” Next to the “Overview” panel
Learning objectives
After finishing this learning module, you will:
know the main characteristics of dementia
• Understand the most common forms of dementia
•Comprehend the difference between senile forgetfulness and dementia
•Learn more about the basic psychological needs and ways to fulfil them
Credits
This e-learning is based on the online module “What is dementia?” developed in 2020 by Expertise Center Dementia Flanders and Expertise Center Dementia Sophia with the support of the Fund Dr. Daniël De Coninck, managed by the King Baudouin Foundation.
Authors of that online module are Herlinde Dely and Leentje De Wachter of Expertise Centre Dementia Flanders and Kathleen Vandenbroucke of Expertise Center Dementia Sophia
Photos are by Leo De Bock – commissioned by the Expertise Center Dementia Flanders.
This e-learning was developed based on and in collaboration with the following partners.
