The 5 Pillars of Dementia Care
To be the most innovative and flexible care home provider, who recognises that each diagnosis of dementia is unique to the individual. We will provide support, care, and encouragement to maximise the capabilities of our residents enabling them to live a fulfilling life with dementia.
Understanding My Life
To ensure everyone has information about dementia and are aware of the ways they can minimise their risk of developing dementia.
How:
- Implement dementia care awareness and information events to our local communities.
- Work in partnership with local dementia societies.
- Work to ensure every community, people of working age and those with sensory impairments have access to information about dementia.
- Ensure risk reduction messages are accessible to everyone through resource tools.
Diagnosis & Assessing My Life
How:
- Informal and conversational meetings to develop rapport and trust.
- Obtain key information from family and friends.
- Initial care plans written before admission and communication to staff.
- Provide information programmes to assist with diagnosis.
- Pre-admission – understand what is important in My Life
Supporting My Life
How:
- We will recruit support workers/ resident representatives who are passionate, inspiring and empathetic.
- We will create and build education and training programmes to improve the knowledge and skills of everyone working with our residents at every stage of their life.
- We will improve the communication between all communities to share their specialist skills and support best practice.
- We will create My Life Ambassadors who will work consistently across the organisation to improve the quality of care and support given.
- We will support new team members by building a robust induction plan.
- We will inspire and work in collaboration with families & friends.
Living My Life
How:
- We will maintain and design services delivering evidence based, quality support and care at every point of need for our residents.
- We will improve the offer and uptake of assistive technology for people living life with dementia to support their independence.
- We will provide socially fulfilling lifestyles, individually tailored to meet the needs of our residents throughout their life.
- We will maintain our dementia friendly environments to include personalisation and familiarity, orientation and sensory cues.
- We will focus on what our residents can and continue to do, learning new skills and maintaining their independence.
- We will maintain a dignified and unique dining experience that caters for individual preference and physical needs, to improve health & wellbeing.
End Of My Life
Ensure more people with dementia have an advance plan of care that describes their wishes for the end of their lives
How:
- We will embed advance care planning for people living life with dementia.
- We will empower support workers to feel confident and compassionate in their role, offering knowledge and increased skills in end-of-life care.
- We will focus on maximising comfort and choice of the person with dementia ensuring all their needs and wishes are met.
- We will provide spiritual, cultural and religious support for the person with dementia and their families.
- We will work across the organisation and external specialists to improve the care for people dying with dementia.