July 04, 2019
In-home care franchise, Caremark, recently hosted a Midsummer event for their franchise network, to celebrate recent achievements and discuss future plans. Franchisees were also invited to take part in an advanced ‘Virtual Dementia Tour’ which uses virtual reality technology to mimic the effects of living with the condition. Caremark are now working in partnership with Training2Care to deliver this dementia training course across their franchise network.
With over 100 offices nationwide, and 1 in 6 people in the UK living with dementia*, a high proportion of Caremark’s 6,760 clients are affected by the syndrome. Caremark pride themselves on being known as a domiciliary care provider with the highest standard of training available to their thousands of care workers. As a testament to this, they have invested in their specialist training programme, expanding the offering to now include specific training for 18 different conditions including dementia. To announce this recent development, David Glover, Managing Director, invited Training2Care along to the annual event, at New Hall Hotel & Spa in Sutton Coldfield, to introduce their revolutionary virtual reality resource.
“Dementia is a disorienting and frustrating condition, which increases over time. People with dementia find themselves going through an exceedingly confusing time, with very little control over their symptoms. We’re proud to work with some of the most skilled care workers across the UK and we’re keen to nurture their development by offering them access to this innovative experience. Franchisees were encouraged to trial the tour during our Midsummer event, so they can get a real feel for what their clients might be experiencing, before the scheme is rolled out across the network. This snapshot into the life of a person living with the condition will help our care workers and franchisees to be more understanding, patient and confident in dealing with symptoms,” said David.
Dinah Madelin, who took part in the virtual tour, appreciated the opportunity to witness such ground-breaking training, and share in the experience with other like-minded franchisees.
“I found the virtual experience extremely eye-opening – it’s probably the closest any of us without the condition will come to living and experiencing the symptoms,” explained Dinah. “I came away with such an increased sense of sympathy for our clients who struggle with dementia. The tour is truly revolutionary and something I hope to be able to offer my care workers going forward. It was the best Midsummer event yet and I’m sure my fellow franchisees would agree with me!”
As well as sharing this training programme with their franchise network, David arranged for care industry specialists to speak with the network of business owners. Jose Sanchez, from Careskills Academy, hosted a session on the updated training programmes and the specifics of what each module would include for their care staff. Jane Townson, Vice President at UKHCA, spoke about recent developments within the homecare industry and how these would impact their individual businesses.
After a morning of informative and comprehensive training sessions and presentations, franchisees were then invited to relax and spend valuable downtime away from their businesses. They enjoyed a BBQ lunch, live music and catching up with their fellow franchisees.
“Our network do such a phenomenal job of running compliant and compassionate businesses, so we host this event each year, in an effort to thank them for their continued dedication. As a network, we’re very much looking forward to seeing what we can achieve in the second half of the year,” concluded David.