At Riversway Nursing Home we are holding a Raising Dementia Awareness month in March 2019.
All of our staff going through induction will start having basic Dementia Awareness training, this will be supplemented by Level 1* Dementia Awareness training for all staff within the first year.
In March we will start to train the nurses, managers and other key people within the home in Level 2* Dementia Awareness training. This will entail looking at:
- the differences between depression, delirium and dementia;
- bio-psycho-social models for good dementia care;
- pain and pain tools
- medication and poly-pharmacy
- legislation and other drivers
- meaning of Distressed Reaction and treatment strategies
- person-centred care and relationship-centred care practices
- the importance of friends and family
- meaningful activity
Some of you might recognise that these subjects are covered in Springhill Care’s Dementia Champion training. This is indeed so, but the Dementia Champions cover them in more depth and also do a presentation of a case study about working with a resident who has dementia and their family.
After the level 2 training has taken place the 3 new team leaders at Riversway, Sian, Kiri and Megan, and other skilled carers within Riversway will be undertaking the new Dementia Champion training.
We are also starting to offer Dementia Awareness sessions for our outside community contacts such as volunteers at Riversway as well as offering this to local shops and churches.
Other projects happening during Riversway’s Raising Dementia Awareness month will be our regular Forget Me Not Cafe which will run alongside Dementia UK’s fundraiser Time for a Cuppa. Come and join us to raise money for this great charity.
by Jakki Whitehead, Admiral Nurse
* According to Department of Health (2015). Dementia Core Skills Education and Training Framework.
