Pioneering approach to dementia
THE CARE team at Westroyd House Care Home in Loughborough has achieved accreditation to provide a pioneering new approach to caring for people living with dementia.
The new approach, called the Dementia Care Framework, uses advanced technology to help monitor people with dementia so that care can be adjusted to their changing needs.
All staff in the home undergo specialist dementia care training including undergoing a simulated experience of what it is like to live with the condition, to increase understanding and empathy
Westroyd House is part of Four Seasons Health Care, which spent two years developing and testing the new approach.
The care team uses an exclusive information technology based care audit system to help them to create and continuously update a comprehensive picture of each resident’s physical, psychological and emotional condition and their day to day experience, so that their care and support needs can be met.
Its purpose designed software programme is thought to be the first of its type worldwide. It is based on 320 recog- nised standards, including NICE Guidelines (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) and Alzheimer’s Society best practice guidance.
It is updated electronically by care staff and replaces paper-based audits that are slow and time consuming and almost always behind the changing care needs of the person.
Dr. Claire Royston, Group Medical Director for Four Seasons Health Care, said: “Everyone working in the home has completed training, including an experience of what it is like to live with dementia.
“The experience simulates the sensory and cognitive impairments, the confusion and the frustrations and even the emotional effects associated with dementia.
“This helps them to understand something of the perspective of the person who is living with the condition and increase empathy with them. It makes learning best care practice so much more meaningful.”
“This is a new generation of dementia care. Sadly, we know that in the absence of a clinical cure it is a progressive condition, but with the right support the effects of dementia progression can be slowed and the person with dementia can enjoy a good life experience and be happy. That is what we have designed the Dementia Care Framework to achieve.”