Parkinson's UK partners with Home Instead to deliver a bespoke training programme for care staff

The UK Parkinson's Excellence Network has worked closely with Home Instead to create a bespoke Parkinson's training programme for their care professional staff. You can read more about Home Instead here.

Home Instead, is a national home care provider specialising in providing care and companionship in the home for older people, including live-in care. Its unique service is tailored to the needs of individual clients and the amount of care they require to be able to continue to live in the comfort and familiarity of their own home as long as possible.

Bespoke Parkinson's programme

The programme, delivered by the Excellence Network, aims to upskill Home Instead care professionals by providing them with a background knowledge and understanding of Parkinson's, so they are able to provide tailored care to the needs of those living with the condition.

The course will be split into two parts. The first part will provide delegates with a range of resources and learning to improve their knowledge of Parkinson's, and once completed, they will then undertake the second part of the course which will train them on how to deliver the course to their own staff.

Following the launch of the programme, Home Instead anticipates that approximately 5,000 of its 10,000 care professionals will have received the specialist Parkinson’s UK-recognised training by the end of this year. 

Continuing the partnership 

Ahead of the programme launching, the Excellence Network recently exhibited at Home Instead's company-wide conference and received lots of positive engagement with the company's care professional supervisors.

Going forward, Parkinson's UK and Home Instead will work together as experts in their own fields to develop an online course on Parkinson's and domiciliary care, which will be available for all domiciliary care staff later this year. 

Commenting on the partnership, Ghalib Ullah, Head of Commercial Partnerships at Parkinson’s UK said: 

“Parkinson's UK are delighted to partner with Home Instead and are really excited about working collaboratively with them to make sure people with Parkinson’s get the right care and support. By upskilling and providing their care professionals with the relevant resources, practical skills and information about Parkinson’s, it will ensure they can deliver the very best quality care when dealing with clients with Parkinson’s, especially those with more complex symptoms." 

Martin Jones, CEO of Home Instead added: 

“We want people to be able to live their life well at home, where they feel most comfortable. This is absolutely possible for someone who is living Parkinson’s.

“By sharing our sector expertise with Parkinson’s UK we hope that families will realise that they do have a choice when it comes to care and that quality home care can really make a difference to people’s lives.

“This type of partnership between third and private sectors presents a really exciting dynamic as we look to shape the future of care and support.”