Utopia Home Care, Inc. announced today that it will hold its free caregiver training classes at its Westbury and Riverhead offices as a community service, on Tuesday, October 13. The classes will be held at 95 Post Avenue, Westbury, NY, and at 180 Old Country Road (Route 58), Riverhead, NY. Utopia offers its classes free to help the public meet the needs of the area’s growing aging and disabled populations. Increasingly, the public is turning to home health care agencies, or sometimes choosing to take on caretaking responsibilities themselves, or a combination of both, rather than have their family member be cared for in nursing homes or other facilities.
“There is a steadily growing need to teach people the skills required to take on the responsibilities of being a caregiver for members of their own family,” said Diane Martinez, Executive Vice President, Utopia Home Care. “Our goal as a company is to allow patients to be cared for at home, rather than at a nursing home or other facility. Most people prefer the comforts and familiar surroundings of their own home. Providing free caregiver training is an extension of that mission and will help to ensure that caregivers have the necessary training to properly address the home health care needs of their loved ones.”
Four topics will be covered:
Session 1: 9:30-11:00am -- Ambulating with a person, cane, or walker
Session 2: 11:00am-12:30pm -- Transfers: bed to wheelchair and back, wheelchair to toilet and back
Session 3: 1:30-3:00pm -- Turning and Positioning, skin & incontinent care, and use of bedpan & urinal
Session 4: 3:00-4:30pm -- Use of a Hoyer Lift
* Please note that the purpose of the training is to gain personal skills. No certificates will be given.
Scheduled dates are subject to change. Classes are monthly and are rotated among five of Utopia’s six Long Island locations. Please call to register for a training class and directions. Caregivers can attend one, or more, or all the sessions. For Utopia’s other five office locations on Long Island and information about the free caregiver training program, as well as job opportunities at Utopia Home Care, contact the Westbury office at (516) 334-4807 or the Riverhead office at (631) 369-5500, or visit www.utopiahomecare.com.
