After two years in development, Elsevier will launch the College of Personal Assistance and Caregiving (CPAC) this September, thus expanding the DirectCourse curricula. This is a new web-based curriculum designed to train and educate learners working with people with physical disabilities and older adults. Pilot programs have been launched in many states, including Missouri, Kansas, and California, and will be available across the entire country in September.

“CPAC provides a learning gateway for families, workers, and those who support individuals with various
disabilities, enabling them to live in the community,” said Bill Tapp, Director of DirectCourse/CPAC. “These non-medical models of support add value not only to the person served, but the persons serving.”

According to the Pew Research Center, over 10,000 individuals turn 65 every single day, making up over 26% of the entire population. In order to address the need to provide assistance to this growing demographic, CPAC helps train and educate support staff, families, and the individuals needing support themselves.

As home care expands, family members are finding themselves in the challenging role of assisting their loved
ones, often full-time, and are discovering that they need a convenient, thorough method by which they can become trained caregivers. In addition, many people with disabilities are taking charge of hiring personal assistants themselves, and are seeking ways to distinguish the best care possible.

“Our online curriculum is attractive to a wide variety of people,” said Mel Neri, Project Coordinator for CPAC. “These self-directed courses help increase the skill levels of the caregiver, and in many cases can direct the person with a disability to know precisely what they need from their personal assistants. This enables them to
make more knowledgeable choices when deciding upon personal assistants.”

Created by the Center for Personal Assistance Services at the University of California, San Francisco, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota’s Research and Training Center, this online course utilizes the Elsevier Performance Manager, which allows supervisors and managers a variety of tools to measure effectiveness. CPAC is an effective tool to give employees a focused, self-directed career path, which
helps to increase job satisfaction and reduce turnover.

For more information, and to request a demo, please visit: http://directcourseonline.com/personalassistance/