People with dementia should have the same access to community health and care services as others with complex support needs.
People living with dementia may have greater support needs as their condition progresses.
For extra information, evidence and best practice please scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Regional offerings
Dementia Wellbeing Plan for Greater Manchester; Dementia United
Weblink: https://dementia-united.org.uk/dementia-wellbeing-plan/
Housing for People Living With Dementia in Greater Manchester - From Policy to Practice
Weblink: https://dementia-united.org.uk/housing/
National offerings
Dementia UK
Telephone: 0800 88 6678
Email: direct@dementiauk.org
Weblink: https://www.dementiauk.org/
NICE Dementia Guidance
Weblinks:
We have provided links to the NICE guideline for dementia and a further link is provided to guidance on how to delay or prevent the onset of dementia.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) NG16 (2015) Dementia, disability and frailty in later life – mid-life approaches to delay or prevent onset: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng16
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) (2019) Dementia: assessment, management and support for people living with dementia and their carers: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng97
Healthwatch
Telephone: Call: 03000 683 000 between the hours of 08:30 – 17:30 Monday to Friday
Email: enquiries@healthwatch.co.uk
Weblink: https://www.healthwatch.co.uk/your-local-healthwatch/list
Living with Dementia Toolkit - downloadable guide
The Guide is available in English and in Welsh. It introduces the toolkit and the resources available. For the full experience of the toolkit, you need to look at the website. QR codes link you back to the website at various points. There is a 'How to use QR codes' video lower down the page.
This can be downloaded here: https://livingwithdementiatoolkit.org.uk/home/living-with-dementia-toolkit-downloadable-guide/
Eating and Drinking well: supporting people living with dementia
Films can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlYPTTibTO8&t=28s
Eating and Drinking - information for family and friends as dementia progresses towards the end of life
This booklet may help you to make decisions, provide care, plan for future care, and it may also help to guide discussions with health professionals. You may not want to
read all of this information at this time but might wish to come back to this booklet at a later time.
PDF: Eating and Drinking - information for family and friends as dementia progresses towards the end of life - eating_and_drinking_final (1)
Evidence
Working within local arrangements, the named care coordinator should:
- play a lead role in the assessment process liaise and work with all health and social care services, including those provided by the voluntary and community sector ensure referrals are made and are actioned appropriately.
- Offer the person the opportunity to be involved in planning their care and support, have a summary of their life story included in their care plan, prioritise the support they need, recognising that people want to do different things with their lives at different times, and that the way that people's long-term conditions affect them can
The Housing and Living Well with Dementia Report (2021) acknowledges the role discharge teams can have for patients with dementia and outlined some key points: " - the significance of ‘home’ for patients may not be known to staff - opportunities should be created for people to discuss what matters to them in relation to home – both the place and the people – so that appropriate help and advice can be offered. A rights-based approach should be reflected in assessing and managing risks. Hierarchies within hospital settings persist and medical opinions are difficult to challenge.
Best Interest Decisions should take account of as much information as possible about the individual’s known wishes, aspirations and living circumstances prior to hospital admission, not just during the crisis period that may have led up to it. Using a rights-based approach should enable a balanced appraisal of the risks in returning home and being admitted to residential care for example. The need for negotiated support planning and decision making is a multi-agency collaborative effort. Housing staff should be included in discharge planning as equal partners so they can share valuable information about individuals and how they were managing at home - assumptions may be made about what sheltered or extra care housing provide without checking these out with housing staff, so people may be discharged inappropriately .Discharge teams should be up to date in terms of: local housing and support options: access to these options; changes in benefits linked to housing; and eligibility criteria for Disabled Facilities Grants. Building professional networks with local housing providers will bring benefits not only in terms of knowledge of resources but also in mutual trust and confidence when planning for and with individuals. More information here
The Care Act (2014) set out to: Ensure older people with social care needs and multiple long-term conditions are supported to make use of personal budgets, continuing healthcare budgets, individual service funds and direct payments (where they wish to). This should be achieved by giving them and their carers information about different funding mechanisms they could use to manage the budget available to them, and any impact these may have on their carer supporting them to try out different mechanisms for managing their budget while offering information, advice and support to people who pay for or arrange their own care, as well as to those whose care is publicly funded. This includes offering information about benefits entitlement ensuring that carers' needs are taken fully into account. Careplans should include ordinary activities outside the home (whether that is a care home or the person's own home), for example shopping or visiting public spaces. It should also include activities that: reduce isolation because this can be particularly acute for older people with social care, needs and multiple long-term conditions (see preventing social isolation), and should aim to build people's confidence by involving them in their wider community, as well as with family and friends. Professionals should review and update care plans regularly and at least annually.
Research paper: Research has shown that people who have received a reablement service view it positively and see the benefit of improvement in their confidence, functional ability, mobility, independence and wellbeing. It has also been found that even for people who were previously receiving traditional home care services, reablement approaches brought about improvements in independence, which in turn prolonged their ability to live at home and reduce the amount of traditional care subsequently required.