DEMENTIA FRIENDLY EAST LOTHIAN: SUPPORT AND TRAINING FOR MAKING LIFE GREAT FOR PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA
What people wanted to know
- What courses or training I need to do to help me support people with dementia
- How do I get a greater understanding of what dementia training is available, who can deliver and what are the resources?
- Is there funding for training?
- How do we access training and support round dementia?
- What sort of dementia training is the Care Inspectorate looking for?
- How do we arrange ad hoc training for new staff or volunteers?
- How do we engage the wider community in understanding dementia?
- How do we reduce the ‘fear’ of helping people ‘out and about’ with dementia?
- How to get training for my volunteers who work with people with dementia.
- Training for Carers and a greater voice for lived experience of dementia and caring for people with dementia
Points:
- Mobile workforce needs consistent training and knowledge that works across sectors
- Good to look at training across sectors and interests so we learn from each other
- Day Centre registration
- Want to support people with dementia to live happily in community – business, shops, get outside into nature
- This is about living
- Making sure we have the right training to the right level for our work/role, including family and neighbour carers and supporters
What’s available
- FREE Internet resources: http://www.sssc.uk.com/workforce-development/supporting-your-development/promoting-excellence-in-dementia-care
- FREE Dementia Informed Level: Community Learning and Development
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/d442e0b9#/d442e0b9/4
- A number of people have done the Best Practice in Dementia Care from the DSDC at Stirling University and are trained facilitators. Get in touch if you’re interested in finding out more.
- Scottish Care has developed a programme between informed and skilled level. Perfect induction programme for staff, volunteers and new carers. It works using blended groups across sectors and family carers so can learn across the sectors. It takes 2 days in total. We might be able to set up something similar here if we need it.
- As we build our capacity we can run our own courses. For example, Carer now runs carer support sessions and start sharing knowledge and expertise.
Policy Context:
Scotland’s Dementia Strategy; Charter of Rights; National Standards of Care; Promoting Excellence skills framework:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Services/Mental-Health/Dementia
Rights apply in all settings. Includes right to have carers who are well supported and educated about dementia. Need to see Dementia as a disease and we have a right to treatment. Rights set the bar. End of life care is a national priority and people with dementia deserve parity with other illnesses.
Care Inspectorate
- Assess services in accordance with the strategy and standards. Includes Rights and Looking for people with dementia having more say and control over their own care and wider decisions. eg Representation of people with dementia in decision making, on committees, on recruitment panels, doing training. All possible.
- Might ask if have mapped staff against Performing Excellence Framework. What levels of expertise, skills and knowledge do they have?
- Wants to see that training has made a difference.
- Inspections will look at promoting excellence, training strategy and workforce.
- Dementia will be a specific focus in future inspection.
- Evidenced in supervision, staff development and plans, training and records
Dementia Friendly Communities
- Bring people together to discuss training and support and share and learn from each other
- Help challenge stigma and help see people s having strengths
- Provide good mechanism for training and capacity building
- Help people live quality and independent lives for longer
- Right to be included in the community – to get out of care or own home and be involved in the community
- Community needs to understand people when behaviour changes, how to support, and keep folk going out and staying connected
- Age well and age actively
- Events like this spread the words about rights and how to access training and put it into practice. we need to keep spreading the word.
- Network good way to share and learn
Promoting Excellence
What matters are the learning outcomes of training and that improvement can be evidenced.
Informed level appropriate for staff with occasional contact with people with dementia: kitchen staff, cleaners. Also community groups; family, friends, unpaid carers, Day Centre Management Committees, drivers, operational firefighters, community wardens, neighbours. Course takes around 2/3 hours over 1-2 sessions.
Skilled a good starting point and resource. for people with direct or significant impact on people with dementia. Focus on person centred care, communication, rights, community involvement, networks. Courses take a couple of days with practice in between. Includes people in referral or assessment roles; people working 1:1 and/or delivering person centred care in various settings; some/one of Management Committee; Ambassadors.
Enhanced – managers responsible for staff training; supervisory staff; managers and providers of learning and development; Day Centre coordinators; Allied Health Professionals, activity coordinators.
Expert – Nursing staff? Managers? usually a specialist post
DISCUSSION POINTS:
- The training required is determined by the specific role and job not the job title. For example if you make decisions which affect people directly, decide or deliver training or staff/volunteer development or decide on resources or have a lot of direct contact you may need skilled level training.
- Training is not a fixed entity, everyone should aspire to improve their practice and train accordingly
- Good dementia care is good person centred care, though there are some specific aspects of dementia that people do need to be aware of to deliver good care to people with dementia.
- We could design a training plan for dementia for next year
- We could develop a network of Dementia Ambassadors which taps us into SSSC support and learning.