CPI Training for Dementia Care Providers
Person-centered dementia care training that gives staff the language, confidence, and de-escalation skills to support people in care through distress behaviors without restraint.
Crisis Prevention Institute has trained more than 17 million professionals since 1980, including the dementia care workforce and future professionals in university programs, memory care communities, senior living and assisted living communities, skilled nursing facilities, hospices, and home health agencies across the United States.
Make an Impact with CPI
The Need for Effective Dementia Training
More people are living longer with dementia. The professionals supporting them deserve training that matches the complexity of the work. Effective dementia care training reduces the strain on caregivers, improves the day-to-day experience of people in care, and shows up in the outcomes that families notice first.
Create a Dementia Capable Workforce
Choose the training course that best aligns with your organization's goals. All courses listed below combine self-paced online learning with live, instructor-led virtual training for a flexible and interactive learning experience.
Certified Instructor Training: Dementia Capable Care
Select individual(s) in your organization to become certified to train Dementia Capable Care to your staff.
Train your Champions: Dementia Capable Care Specialist Credential Training
Select a group of champions to receive private instruction from one of our experts
Consulting and Implementation Support
Training builds skills. Dementia Care Specialists consulting helps turn those skills into lasting improvements in care practices, environments, and programs. Our consultants’ partner with your team to improve communication, prevent and de-escalate distress, and create spaces that support safety and independence. Practical tools, assessments, and implementation support help your team put recommendations into everyday practice. Start with a free 30-minute consultation. Share your challenges and explore the right mix of training, tools, and consulting for your team.
Let's ConnectThe Sustainable Impact of CPI Training
Our evidence-based crisis prevention programs have measurable impacts on the organizations we serve.
Impacting Organizational Growth and Quality of Dementia Care
Leaders at St. Croix Hospice share the positive impact Dementia Capable Care Training has had on their organization’s growth and the quality of care for the individuals they serve.
Improving Our Communication: With Those Living With Dementia
As organization and family caregivers, it’s important to understand the person living with dementia and not just their current stage of cognition. Our free resource provides some helpful strategies to increase your awareness and improve how you communicate with individuals experiencing cognitive challenges.
Crisis Prevention Institute Across Care Settings
Dementia care comes with unique challenges in a variety of care settings, including memory care communities, senior living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, home health, and hospice care. Crisis Prevention Institute's Dementia Care Specialists provides evidence based, person-centered education that equips care teams with the knowledge, confidence, and skills to better understand cognitive changes, respond to behaviors, and support individuals living with dementia.
Memory Care
Person-centered training for staff supporting residents through every stage of cognitive change.
Skilled Nursing and Long Term Care
Training that aligns with CMS expectations for person-centered dementia care
Home Health, Home Care, and Hospice
Communication and de-escalation training for staff working in residents' own homes or end-of-life care.
Life Plan Communities
Train the trainer programs for Continuing Care Retirement Communities/Life Plan Communities that scale consistent dementia care training across the entire organizational offerings.
Senior living and Assisted living
Consistent training across every role, from caregivers and medication aides, to activity and dining staff, so the whole team supports residents the same way through resistance, wandering, and agitation.
Preparatory Organizations
Organizations such as colleges, universities, and training organizations prepare future professionals with the skills to provide person-centered, ability-focused support for individuals with dementia.
Dementia Training for Nurses
Nurses play a central role in dementia care, from assessment and medication coordination to family communication and escalation prevention. Dementia-specific training helps nurses match care to cognitive ability, interpret behavior, reduce escalation, and build person-centered care plans.
For nurses seeking recognition alongside skills, the Dementia Capable Care Specialist credential provides a professional development pathway with continuing education support.
Building a Dementia Capable Workforce
Dementia Care Specialists at Crisis Prevention Institute are leaders in person-centered, ability-focused dementia care training and consulting. Our approach brings together CPI’s Crisis Development Model℠ and Allen’s Cognitive Levels to help caregivers understand cognitive ability, respond effectively to distress behaviors, and support greater function and quality of life.
Our goal goes beyond training individual caregivers. We’re working to create a Dementia Capable Workforce where people living with dementia, their loved ones, and the professionals who support them have the knowledge and skills they need to thrive.
Ready to build dementia capability in your organization?
What Dementia Care De-escalation Covers
Dementia-specific de-escalation is the practice of reducing distress in a person living with cognitive change, before that distress escalates into resistance, aggression, or harm. It draws on verbal communication, environmental adjustment, and an understanding of the unmet need driving the behavior. Crisis Prevention Institute's Dementia Capable Care model teaches this approach across every cognitive stage.
Verbal de-escalation in dementia care prioritizes tone, pace, and simple language over reasoning. A resident in cognitive distress may not be able to follow logic or remember a recent agreement. Effective communication anchors the person in the moment in their emotional state to support them in a dignified way they can understand.
A person-centered approach treats distress behavior as communication. Rather than asking how to stop the behavior, staff are trained to ask what the person is trying to express, and to respond to the unmet need. This reduces reliance on physical intervention to improve quality of life.
Dementia Capable Care blends Claudia Allen's Cognitive Disabilities Model with Tom Kitwood's framework of person-centered care, layered with Crisis Prevention Institute's verbal de-escalation techniques. The 2nd Edition program is available in a blended format, equipping staff to support residents at every stage of care
Crisis Prevention Institute's Dementia Capable Care 2nd Edition certification course takes three and a half hours of online learning followed by one day of live virtual training with a CPI instructor. Certification holds for two years before renewal. Once certified, staff are authorized to teach the program across their organization.