Summary: 

Effective: October 20, 2020  

In October of 2020, the District of Columbia adopted new regulations regarding the training of direct care staff in facilities working with patients with Dementia. Below is a summary of these regulations along with how Safety-Care can be used to ensure that staff if best equipped and trained to support these patients.

How Safety-Care aligns: Numerous health organizations throughout the United States and Canada rely upon QBS and our Safety-Care training to provide their staff members with the training they need to help maintain a safe and healthy environment. Safety-Care provides a comprehensive, supportive approach to incident prevention, de-escalation, and management. Your Staff will learn practical strategies for helping students that use evidence-based practices consistent with PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) and ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis).  

Safety-Care can meet the requirements of Departmental Requirements in the following ways: 

(b)(1) Facilities and programs shall provide initial training of at least 8 hours to:  

(A) All covered staff direct service staff members, covered administrative staff members, and other covered staff members hired shall begin the dementia training within 90 days of the hire date, and shall be completed within 120 days of start of employment; and  

(B) All direct service staff members, covered administrative staff members and other covered staff members who were employed prior to the date set forth in subparagraph  

(C) of this paragraph and who have not received equivalent training within the prior 24 months; which initial training requirements shall be completed within 120 days following publication by the Department of Health of acceptable trainings regulations.  

(2) Each facility or program shall establish procedures for ongoing staff support regarding the treatment and care of persons with dementia, which shall include on-site mentoring programs and other support mechanisms developed by the Department.  

(3) For covered direct service staff members and covered administrative staff members, the curriculum used for the initial training shall cover:  

(A) Alzheimer’s disease, and related dementia;  
(B) Person-centered care;  
(C) Assessment and care planning;  
(D) Activities of daily living; and  
(E) Dementia-related behaviors and communication.  

(5) For other covered staff members, training shall include, at a minimum, an overview of dementia, principles of person-centered care, and communication issues  

(6) Initial dementia training shall be considered complete only after the staff member has taken and passed an evaluation.  

(e)(1) A minimum of 4 hours of continuing education within each calendar year period shall be required for covered administrative staff members and covered direct service staff members.  

(2) A minimum of 2 hours of continuing education within each calendar year period for other covered staff members.  

(3) Such continuing education shall include new information on best practices in the treatment and care of persons with dementia. 

How Safety-Care aligns: Safety-Care is uniquely designed to provide trainees with the skills to assess potential crises, how de-escalate these situations, and how to respond if the situation is elevated. Our trainings are trauma-informed and focus on modifying behavior to prevent dangerous outcomes. Safety-Care can be taught to all levels of personnel, from administration down to volunteers.  Additionally, our core trainings can be supplemented with unique add-on trainings focused on specific needs and professions.  Safety-Care uses a Train the Trainer model allowing each district to quickly develop their own core of trainers qualified in the most current behavioral interventions and de-escalation strategies. Our Master Trainers can have up to ten (10) staff ready to train in as little as three days.  Safety-Care is geared towards ensuring that all trainees are familiar with a single response system and can respond in-kind to numerous situations regardless of the professional setting.