Ravenna senior care company provides in-home care from KentWired.com on Vimeo.

The rate of Alzheimer’s type Dementia is increasing among the ever-growing senior population. The franchise senior care company, Home Instead, is implementing programs that are tailored to seniors experiencing Dementia-related symptoms.

“We take care of seniors—changing the face of aging so that they can stay in their homes and have aging in place and age with dignity,” said Executive Director of Marketing and Community Relations for Portage County’s Home Instead Senior Care Paula Baughman.

Baughman says that by the year 2050, a large portion of the senior population will be mostly staying at home. Therefore, Home Instead is determined to provide this demographic with quality home care.

The facility located in Ravenna, provides education and training for individuals interested in becoming home care givers.

“How it works is—they come here, they take our training program. They have to be background checked. They have to be drug screened. There’s a lot of things that they’re going to have to go through,” said Baughman.

Home Instead of Portage County includes a training service that allows for prospective home care givers to develop hands on experience. The training center closely resembles a home environment. This way, the trainee is better prepared when he or she becomes a home care giver.

What makes Home Instead unique is its personal approach to care giving. The senior care company methodically pairs up care givers to clients.

“We’ll client match them. When they leave, they’re going to have who their clients are going to be. Then we introduce them… so it makes that first day a lot less scary,” said Baughman.

Additionally, Home Instead provides transportation services, whether it be to the doctor’s office or the grocery store, Home Instead care givers will provide the transportation.

Baughman says that because of the prevalency of Alzheimer’s type Dementia in seniors, Home Instead is focusing on nutrition.

Being that meal times can be especially difficult for those affected by Dementia, to ensure that seniors are receiving the proper nutrition, Baughman says the goal is to not overwhelm them with large portions of food.

“Our care givers learn to combat that by offering them a smaller plate of food with smaller portions just to kind of help them along the way.”

However, Home Instead Senior Care is expanding its efforts beyond its own facility. Beginning on March 16, Home Instead will have its first training for “Alzheimer’s Senior Friendly Businesses,” where local businesses can become certified as senior friendly.

The training program for the businesses is centered on education of needs and issues related to seniors, especially seniors with Dementia. The motto for this new initiative is RESPECT.

“And RESPECT is that we learn to re-direct the situation. We learn to encourage. And we look for the signs and symptoms of something to watch for,” said Baughman.

The purpose is to re-direct the individual to positivity. Baughman says the focus of this year is to really change the face of aging.

Home Instead Senior Care in Ravenna is located on the second story of the Portage County Health Department.