Engage: Responding to the Dementia Challenge: Policy into practice
Over the last couple of years, the country’s focus on improving the standard of dementia care has intensified. Partly, I believe, as a response to David Cameron’s Dementia Challenge pledge, but also as a result of the stark reality that 800,000 people in the UK now live with the condition. As such, creating Dementia Friendly Communities and improving the standard of dementia care has never been more important. So how can we all play an active role in this?
At the Accord Group, we are taking on this challenge in a number of ways. Ways that we believe can be, and are in some cases are already being, replicated by other housing, care and health providers across the country. We have invested heavily in energising our local communities in the West Midlands, to embrace the Dementia Friends programme and offer their time and support to the two thirds of people with the condition who live in their own homes or supported housing. Our Dementia Friends provide friendship, help with transport, activity and much, much more.
Our dementia cafés community groups, hosted within our homes and in the community, offer practical advice about living with the condition, as well as companionship and a friendly place to meet – which has made a huge difference to the lives of carers in particular. As part of this initiative, we also have two specialist dementia support workers based at a local hospital, ensuring that people who have recently been diagnosed with dementia get the support they need as early as possible.
Significantly, many of the people that we speak to with dementia want to remain in their homes for as long as possible, but struggle to adapt them to ensure they are safe and meet their needs. Research plays a vital role here and we are currently working on a European-wide research project to develop smart technology which will help people around the home to live comfortably and securely. For those who can no longer remain in their own homes, designing and developing the right accommodation is key to avoiding the feelings of loneliness that accompany the later stages of dementia.
With their lengthy corridors and large communal spaces, the design and layout of traditional extra care schemes can lead to some residents becoming isolated. The green house model of care, widely used in the USA, is an excellent example of designing and building homes that meet the needs of people with dementia effectively. We are embracing the green house model at our latest development in Coventry, which will consist of small clusters of flats built around a central ‘home zone’. The ‘home zone’ area will encourage people to come together as an active community to socialise, cook and eat – creating a real family-feel atmosphere.
As housing, care and health providers we can, and should, be leading the way in responding to the Dementia Challenge – sharing our knowledge, expertise and passion. Membership of representative bodies such as the National Care Forum and active participation as a member of the Dementia Action Alliance are also ways in which we can offer leadership and share best practice.
We must examine every element of dementia care, from the support we offer in the community, right down to the design of the care schemes that we build, ensuring that we meet the needs of people with dementia now and in the future.
David Cameron has described the fight against dementia as one of the ‘greatest challenges of our time’ – which beggars the question, how are you going to rise to it?
About the Author
David Williams is Director of Care and Support at the Accord Group also is a director of the National Care Forum (NCF). The NCF represents the interests of not-for-profit health and social care providers in the United Kingdom.
To follow their blog, visit: http://www.nationalcareforum.org.uk/news.asp?sector_ID=14
