Dementia and delirium service

Our dementia and delirium service aims to provide the highest quality of care and support for patients living with dementia and delirium, and those who care for them. We have a dedicated team, operating across the Trust, who are able to provide care, support and different initiatives to staff, patients and their carers.

Did you know?

• It’s estimated that 25% of our inpatient beds are occupied with someone living with dementia. This equates to approximately 400 patients across LUHFT at any given point
• Delirium is a serious condition which is under-diagnosed and often mismanaged as a result. A third of delirium occurring in hospital is preventable.
• Delirium affects around 20-30% of medical admissions, and up to 60% of patients who have a hip fracture. It is more common in patients with known dementia.

It’s vital that we are able to provide these patients with the best possible care whilst they are in our hospitals, and we are working to ensure that the necessary clinical support and education is available to colleagues at the Trust, in order to facilitate care that takes into account these additional needs.

As part of our improvement plan, a new strategy has been created to support improving our dementia and delirium services, helping to shape where we want to be as a Trust in the long term to offer the best care and support possible for our communities. We have four priority areas within the strategy: workforce, personalised care, the right environment, and innovation in practice. You can read more about the strategy here.

What support we can offer

For colleagues we can:

• Offer greater clinical support and advice around the care, treatment and management of patients with dementia
• Support early identification of delirium (prevention, treatment and management of the condition)
• Provide leadership and practice-based support and education
• Early involvement in A&E and acute assessment areas. This includes admission avoidance, linking in with community services
• Support our complex care teams and social workers with discharge planning, best interest meetings, behaviour charts and advising on appropriate levels of care
• Offer advice on the clinical management of dementia and delirium. We can offer specialist education to all staff at different levels to include management of behaviours of concern, mental capacity and DoLS
• Advise on behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), providing direction and guidance around safe and appropriate management strategies
• Provide and support education to colleagues in all matters relating to dementia care and delirium management (delivered in different formats).

For patients we can:

• Complete clinical assessment on wards, such as delirium screening and cognitive assessment
• Review and assess their care, treatment and management plans during their hospital stay. This includes advising on referrals required to support them, such as MHLT, SALT, Therapies, Dieticians, Social services, Safeguarding team and Neurology
• Carry out medication reviews (including STOPP criteria, antipsychotic prescribing and ACB assessment).

If you need support from the Dementia and Delirium team at LUHFT, please get in touch with your site-specific colleagues on the relevant number below.

Meet the team