Griswold Home Care for Baton Rouge Honors Alzheimer’s Awareness Month With PATH Program

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana—Griswold Home Care for Baton Rouge is marking Alzheimer’s Awareness Month in November by introducing the PATH dementia care program, following Luci Garnett’s completion of the PATH dementia trainer certification at Griswold headquarters from Oct. 20-22, 2026. Over the coming months, she will train select Caregivers in dementia care, and the agency will begin using the PATH assessment with clients in Baton Rouge.

Griswold Home Care for Baton Rouge provides Alzheimer’s and dementia care for older adults across Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, and the personalized approach, training and holistic support (PATH) gives that care a structured starting point. PATH is a dementia program exclusive to Griswold that launched in 2026. The program pairs a client assessment, which identifies which of six levels of dementia support a person needs, with in-person caregiver training matched to those needs.

The training covers person-centered care, communication, managing difficult behaviors and recognizing the stages of dementia. As the agency’s certified PATH trainer, Garnett will lead the in-person sessions herself, working first with a select group of caregivers. The agency will phase in caregiver training over the coming months as sessions are completed. Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, observed each November, provides the agency with a natural opportunity to introduce the program.

An estimated 7.4 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s in 2026, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The organization estimates that about 94,700 Louisianans in that age group have the disease, including about 8,800 in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Behind those figures are households where a son, daughter or other relative is arranging day-to-day support for someone living with memory loss. Those relatives often work full-time or live elsewhere in the metro, and they need to know that the caregiver arriving at the house has been prepared for the kind of support the person requires, the agency said. A structured assessment gives those families and the caregiver a shared picture of where support should begin.

Griswold said because the training is organized around the same six levels as the assessment, a caregiver’s preparation can line up with what the assessment shows a client needs. Caregiver matching is already part of how the agency initiates care, occurring during care planning and before the first shift begins. As training rolls out, the PATH assessment will add a clearer picture of the level of support each client needs, which can then inform that matching.

“Families caring for someone with dementia want to know the caregiver walking through the door understands what their loved one is living with,” said Hunter Dale, owner, Griswold Home Care for Baton Rouge. “Lucionda earning her PATH trainer certification means we can bring that training to our own caregivers here, starting with a select group and building from there. Using the assessment will help us match the right level of support to each client from the beginning.”

PATH training and the agency’s broader Alzheimer’s and dementia care fall under its non-medical homecare. Caregivers provide supervision, companionship and assistance with daily routines, including support for clients at risk of wandering. Meal preparation and light housekeeping can form part of the same visit. Diagnosis, treatment and any clinical decisions remain with each person’s own physicians and healthcare providers.

Families seeking broader support in the area can also turn to Alzheimer’s Services of the Capital Area, a nonprofit serving families affected by Alzheimer’s and dementia across Greater Baton Rouge. More information about its work is available on the organization’s website, and it operates independently of the agency.