Workforce training through massive open online courses: can education generate collective hope for better dementia care?

Abstract

AbstractThe personal care workforce is generally poorly paid, often unregulated, minimally trained and unprepared for the challenges of working with people with dementia. When it comes to accredited healthcare degrees, established programs have little space to accommodate emerging health priorities, such as dementia, in an already crowded curriculum. This creates the perfect storm of a significantly unprepared healthcare workforce as we look towards an expected 139 million cases of dementia worldwide by 2050 (www.alzint.org).Could freely available, online, evidence‐based dementia care education be a solution, offering hope, knowledge and skills to carers across the globe? In 2013, the University of Tasmania launched an Understanding Dementia Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Over 7 weeks participants increase their knowledge of dementia: its causes, symptoms and ways of responding to the needs of people living with the condition. This award‐winning MOOC has world‐leading completion rates, been rated amongst the top MOOCs of all time (Class Central), and reached over 330,000 people around the globe. As well as offering free MOOCS, there are low or no‐cost university level education options in a Diploma and Bachelor of Dementia Care. Targeted to the Australian Aged Care workforce, but open to any student, these fully online programs attract personal care workers, health professionals and family members of people living with dementia. Thousands of students have enrolled, primarily for professional and practice development reasons and to provide better care for family members or friends with dementia. These programs were created specifically for learners of all ages and from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and designed to facilitate success and progress. They are scalable and are being translated into a number of languages and cultures. With this approach, one click at a time, we offer hope through accessible education for those that need it most. In this sense, education is considered an intervention ‐ improving dementia care and awareness, decreasing stigma, and in driving a public health approach for dementia prevention.