The Forth Valley Dementia Project

Eileen RichardsonLibrary & Information Service Manager

Peebles, June 4 2008

•A12-month project which ran from April 2007 to April 2008

•Funded by the Scottish Government with £200,000

•Run by the Dementia Services Development Centre

The Project

•Based at the University of Stirling

•Works to improve services to people with dementia and their carers and families

•Achieves this through providing research, training, information and consultancy

The Dementia Services Development Centre

What is the project?

A way of helping all those in Forth Valley who come in contact with dementia to achieve the targets that they already have to achieve

•To improve standards of care for people with dementia

•To provide better support for families and carers

•To raise awareness of dementia-related issues

Aims of the project

Why Forth Valley?

•Typical of dementia care in Scotland

•Many high-quality services, not always evenly distributed

•3,000 people with dementia in Forth Valley

Forth Valley

Why the programme?

Because one of the major problems is that the responsibility is spread over a wide range of professions, providers and services

What took place

• Change event– One-day convention of 120 staff involved in

dementia care in the Forth Valley area• Process mapping

– Nearly 200 change ideas generated to help achieve local and national objectives

• Small change improvement cycles• Personal effectiveness

Criteria and features of the project

• Designed to help meet existing targets• Action plan drawn up from ideas generated from

the convention• No external experts – the people involved lived

and worked in the area, and their expertise already existed

• No new partnerships – relationships were already long-standing

•recognition of dementia, so earlier diagnosis •person-centred services•co-ordinated approach•reducing delayed discharges and inappropriate acute hospital admissions•shifting care from hospital to community

Good dementia care

• poor awareness of dementia • education and training • lack of home support • greater priority for dementia care• acute hospitals • inequities in service provision

Key issues identified by stakeholders

Aims

• optimise outcomes of care• earlier diagnosis• avoiding misdiagnosis• co-ordinate dementia services between agencies• give teams the skills and confidence to help deliver clinical governance and continue developingservices

OutcomesImproving care for people with dementia:• 63% of staff planned to make changes as a direct result of the programme• 51% felt some part of the experience of people with dementia had improvedImproving the confidence of staff:• 47% were more confident in caring for people with dementia• 67% felt the level of recognition of dementia had improvedImproving the skills of staff:• 90% learned something new• 87% shared that learning with someone else• 92% said access to training had improved

Website

Report

Good practice examples

• Patient information

• Help with eating

• Life story books

• Reminiscence sessions

• Telecare

• Interaction training

Change ideas

• 200 ideas generated• Easy/immediate – Difficult• Funding the changes

• some had no cost implications• some paid for through project funds• some subsidised by participating partners

Police

People involved

LibrariansAllied Health Professionals

Emergency services

Nurses GPs

Church groups

Care assistants

Care home managers

Social workers

Family carers Call handlers

Psychiatrists

Voluntary organisations

Quotes“Very informative. Challenged and set straight somepreconceived notions that I had about dementia.”

“Knowing there is the backup here, the centre, information and resources has made me more confident.”

“They [nursing staff] know more about dementia now, there is a better understanding of ways of dealing with patients now and also they are questioning traditional methods of care. For instance, they are questioning the sedation of patients, understanding ways of communicating with patients.”

Now what?

• Dementia a national priority - £3m pledged• Good practice implementation• Personal testimonies• Contribution to Government targets

– HEAT targets– Dementia Quality and Outcomes Framework targets– The Integrated Care Pathway for Dementia

Iris Murdoch Building, University of Stirling, FK9 4LATel. 01786 467740Email: dementia@stir.ac.ukWeb: www.dementia.stir.ac.uk