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.
At any one time, over 25% of patients in our care are living with dementia or delirium. 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.
We have four priority areas within the strategy: workforce, personalised care, the right environment, and innovation in practice. Some of the work that is ongoing includes:
- Developing a blended workforce that has specialist skills to enable delivery of an enhanced personalised experience for our patients in hospital, and their onward transfer to a community setting or home
- Supporting colleagues with improved bespoke training and targeted practice-based support within care of older person’s wards,
- Ensuring patients are to be given a ‘This is me’ pack within 72 hours of admission
- Ensuring evidence of mental capacity assessments, best interest meetings and that deprivation of liberty safeguards are in place (as appropriate)
- Improving dementia and delirium screening Trust-wide
- Improving ward environments to support care for dementia patients:
- Supporting A&E departments, including reducing agitation in patients who are presenting with dementia
- Reducing PJ paralysis in ward areas and promoting independence and rehabilitation
More information on how the service is further developing and the additional support you can be offered will be shared with colleagues in the coming months. You can read the full strategy here.