NEWS

Dementia Friendly Transportation Driver Training Available Free via MCOA, MassMobility and Alzheimer’s Association

Oct 13, 2021

Massachusetts Councils on Aging (MCOA), MassMobility, and the Alzheimer’s Association are pleased to announce an encore of the highly popular training session for drivers. The Dementia-Friendly Transportation Training program will offer drivers of all types, the tools to recognize and work with people living with dementia.

This free virtual Zoom session will be of interest to volunteer drivers who provide one-on-one transportation to older adults, Councils on Aging that run van services using paid drivers as well as those who match community volunteers with older adults, and transit drivers who drive buses and paratransit. The encore version of this training incorporates suggestions and feedback from drivers who attended the Spring sessions.

You only need to come to one of the two dates. It’s not a two-day training. The Spring 2021 training sessions reached the participation cap – so don’t wait to sign up! You can help us make these sessions even more relevant to your work. When you register, we are going to ask you to tell us if there is a specific topic or challenge that you would like us to address. Also, we are looking for specific examples of your experiences working with a passenger living with dementia. These examples may be used as discussion scenarios in the training.

If you need reasonable accommodations to participate, please contact Patty Sullivan (patty@mcoaonline.com) two weeks before your session. Contact Susan McNulty (susan@mcoaonline.com) if you have questions. Meghan Lemay, M.S., Regional Manager, Western MA, Alzheimer’s Association will provide the training. Meghan brings to the session her experience as a city bus driver.

Sessions will be held on October 21, 2021, from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm or November 17th from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm Register here:  https://fs16.formsite.com/mcoa/a4t4jjt1ce/index.html