Home Instead in Bend has help for home caregivers at its new training center

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Home Instead in Bend is offering a class for people who are primary caregivers, at their new training facility.

Here are the details they shared:

BEND, OR – As the number of seniors living in Central Oregon continues to rapidly increase, those who work in the healthcare field are feeling the pressure, and seeing the desperate need for more care professionals.

Home Instead offers a critical service for the seniors in our community, not only to keep them safe by meeting their most basic needs, but almost more importantly, by giving their family members much needed respite! Did you know that there are 76,000 adults in Bend alone, 16,000 of which are seniors.

Five people to every one senior may not sound like a crisis, but think of all the other jobs in our community that need workers, and lets face it, Caregiving is not for everyone. So, who does the burden of caring for our seniors fall on? Friends, family, neighbors, caring people who usually don’t have the tools and training they need for the job.

This year, Home Instead is excited to partner with Norco and Drive Medical to offer a resource for our community to help bridge the gap in developing professional caregiving skills.

Our training center is equipped with a classroom setting for teacher-led instruction, and Drive Medical has generously donated equipment commonly found in a home care setting that will be used to provide hands on training to those who need it most. In addition to the incredible trainings offered through the Home Instead Franchise network, we are excited to invite other professionals in our community, those who are experts in their field, to join us as guest teachers and help us fulfill our dream to create a better aging experience for the seniors in our community.

“Having a space like this has been a dream of mine for a long time,” said Gloria Vloedman, Director of Client Services for the Bend Home Instead office. “When I began my journey as a caregiver with Home Instead 14 years ago, I didn’t have experience with this kind of stuff and was grateful for the tools that Home Instead provided to me, but I always believed we could get better, and we have. Now we have a wonderful opportunity to share these tools with those who may not have a resource like this available to them.”

“We are proud to partner with Drive Medical in donating home equipment to Home Instead to create a home environment to train families locally.” Said Doug Lundy, Assistant Manager and Employee Owner of Norco Inc. “Norco Medical is an employee-owned family company since 1948 committed to our local communities. What a great opportunity to live our mission to “Serve You Better”!