Arizona health department authorizes Hospice of the Valley to train memory care staff

KJZZ Phoenix
August 5, 2025
by Kathy Ritchie

Assisted living facilities that offer memory care services must now provide enhanced training for staff who work with residents living with dementia.

Calli Carlson is the clinical education leader at Hospice of the Valley's Dementia Care and Education Campus, which is authorized to provide training to staff who work in memory care. Carlson is one of the trainers.

"These are video modules with interactive questions embedded throughout. They show different scenarios with caregivers. Some of the common approaches that we see to care as well as some of the best practices that we'd recommend for care," Carlson said.

Staff must also complete in-person training.

"That two hours of in-person training does an interactive 'Dementia Moments' experience, communication for somebody living with dementia, emergency preparedness and learning mobility best practices for assisting with movement with somebody with dementia," Carlson said.

The training is the result of legislation that was signed into law last year.

"So all staff that work in assisted living that provide memory care services, they're required to do this eight hours of training by September 30th of 2025. So that's everybody. And then ongoing, they'll be required to do four hours of annual training," Carlson said.

Carlson says about 1,500 individuals from 375 different facilities have already reached out for training.