| Dementia Focus is an initiative to promote excellence in all aspects of dementia care, within Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Chaired by Dyllis
Faife of Norfolk Social Services Department,Dementia Focus is currently
based in the School of Social Work and Psychosocial Studies at the University
of East Anglia in Norwich. |
Dementia Focus aims • to raise the profile of work with people with dementia and their carers • to maintain communication and involvement across agencies with an interest in the needs of people with dementia and their carers and • to promote research into good practice in dementia care, with an emphasis on qualitative methods, and the participation of people with dementia, and their carers. |
| Minutes of recent meetings: |
Minutes Dementia Focus Sept 05 Minutes Dementia Focus June 06
|
| Events | Mental Health & Ageing Conference 2006
|
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Strategically placed within their own organisations, members of Dementia Focus regularly share information about their respective agencies and over the last few years have collectively identified the need for several key pieces of work in the region of the Strategic Health Authority. Funding has recently been secured to support 2 of these initiatives:
• A piece of research entitled: Alone with Dementia in Rural Areas
• A programme of Dementia Care Mapping Training
ALONE WITH DEMENTIA IN RURAL AREAS
There has been an accumulation of policy and practice guidance relevant to older people with dementia. This piece of research focuses on those living alone in rural communities and aims to:
• Describe how agencies in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire work through and apply this guidance.
• Describe the range of services for people with dementia living alone in a predominantly rural area
• Compare and contrast service provision in the three counties.
• Identify for national dissemination opportunities and gaps in service provision that are caused by the distinctive features of rural life.This 12 month study is funded by Department of Health’s Section 64 General Scheme and runs from September 2004 – August 2005. Dissemination of the project’s findings will take the form of a report to the Department of Health as well as to those organisations and individuals that take part in the project. Presentations at conferences and articles in academic journals may follow. In particular, dissemination will take place at the annual conference on dementia held at UEA - a partnership between UEA, Norfolk Mental Health Care NHS Trust and Norfolk County Council. These conferences began in 2000 and attract 300 local and national delegates from all care sectors. Dissemination of this report would be timed for the October 2005 conference.
Please check this site for regular progress reports:
Alone with dementia in rural areas: Interim Report to Department of HealthService Mapping with Case Studies 15/09/05
Executive Summary 3 April 2006
DEMENTIA CARE MAPPING TRAINING
Dementia Focus has secured funding from Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Workforce Development Confederation to provide a basic Dementia Care Mapping Training Course for staff in the Eastern Region Strategic Health Authority.
Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) was originally developed by Professor Tom Kitwood, based at Bradford University. It is a tried and trusted tool which can improve the quality of care for people with dementia when used as part of a Quality Assured or Practice Development Framework. Supplementing standard approaches, which focus mainly on the care structure, it provides a systematic method to look in detail at the care process and its effect on well being.
By assessing care from the point of view of the person with dementia, DCM goes to the heart of caring for someone with dementia. It involves making detailed observations and recordings of the interactions experienced by people with dementia in formal care settings. The result is a dementia care ‘map’ for an individual person with dementia, from which data can be analysed and immediate feedback can be given to the direct care staff with the aim of improving practise. It can be used to help pinpoint positive areas in the care process as well as those which require change and also to measure improvements in care over time.
Training in DCM is only available from Bradford Dementia Group licensed trainers, who have themselves undergone rigorous training. The training is accredited and attendees will receive a University of Bradford certificate. It will be offered to 90 members of staff drawn from the 3 Mental Health Care Trusts, the three Social Services Departments and PCTS in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and staff from the independent and voluntary sector who are involved with residential care or ward focused care of people with dementia. The basic DCM course qualifies those who pass the assessment to use DCM in any dementia care setting.
DCM is most effective when it is used as part of an ongoing cycle of evaluation. It is expected that following training, staff will undertake ‘baseline mapping exercises’ with individual residents. They will then be able to feedback to team members and put together an action plan for improvement in readiness for a second map to be carried out within 6 months. It is anticipated that this process of evaluation will improve the level of care to residents – by virtue of a better understanding of their needs, of their interactions with others and of communications by others with them.
INFORMATION SECTION
Ongoing Research & New Services and Projects
Dementia Focus is keen to build on the exciting developments outlined above and to consider further possibilities and ideas.
Are there any areas of research that you feel would be particularly useful to
carry out in East Anglia?
Are there any initiatives that you feel Dementia Focus could assist in pushing
forward or piloting in this region?
What areas of work should Dementia Focus be highlighting and drawing attention
to?
What gaps in service provision for people with dementia need to be addressed
in our region?
If you can contribute any ideas to the discussion, please don't hesitate to
get in contact.
RESEARCH
If you would be interested in publishing your research on this website or if you know of any local research that could be disseminated here, then please get in touch.
NEW SERVICES AND PROJECTS
We would like to feature here details of new and innovatory services and projects that are being developed in the eastern region – please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like your group or project to be featured or with details of other services that we should includePublic Information Working Group for Older People with Mental Health Problems
Norfolk Adult Social ServicesThe objective of this group is to undertake a countrywide and countywide audit of public information available to older people with mental health problems and their carers. At the end of September this year, the group will look at gaps in providing information and undertake to produce a leaflet/booklet/pack to ensure users and carers have easy access to clear and accurate information.
The new group will meet in June to take this work forward, so we would be very pleased to hear from you. You may be able to help us in the following ways: -
• Provide details of information currently available – for example: does the organisation you work for distribute information for users/carers?
• Are you a user or carer? What information have you been provided with? We would be interested in hearing your views.If you could contact us as soon as posible, we would be very grateful.
For further details please contact:
Linda Gill
Information, Advice & Advocacy Manager
Age Concern
Telephone 01603 787111
Direct Dial 01603 785209
E mail address linda.gill@acnorfolk.org.uk
Website address www.acnorfolk.org.uk
or
Mary Highe, Planning Team
Norfolk Adult Social Services
Telephone 01603 223583
E mail address mary.highe@norfolk.gov.uk
Our site is currently under construction - please check back soon!
In the meantime further information on Dementia Focus can be obtained from the following contacts:
Ann McDonald (Senior Lecturer) or Sarah Howe (Project Administrator)
School of Social Work & Psychosocial Sciences, Elizabeth Fry Building, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ
Telephone: 01603 592068
Project Administrator, Assistive Technology & Prevention Services Vantage House, Fisher's Lane, Norwich NR2 1ET
Tel: (01603) 729259 Email: sarah.howes@norfolk.gov.uk
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