Dementia Awareness Week 15-21 May

15th May 2016

15-21 May is national dementia awareness week, a good opportunity to get up-to-date on some developments regarding dementia care in Stockport.  Also why not start to review the dementia care you are providing to your patients and their carers?

How dementia friendly is your practice?

Dementia friendly GP practices – checklist

• Dementia friendly practice environment: have clear signage showing where to find waiting room, toilets etc. (for more information click here). The EDUCATE group – people with dementia – are happy to come to your practice and give you feedback how dementia friendly your environment is: www.educatestockport.org.uk
• Facilitate appointments: provide prompts, book double slots, time slots that are convenient for carers
• Undertake pro-active screening of groups at risk; encourage early diagnosis
• Ensure your dementia register specifies the type of dementia the person has been diagnosed with
• Update dementia register with the care home residents with dementia
• Inform patients about local support groups and dementia friendly activities
• Work together with other professionals to manage long-term conditions e.g. dementia can impact on management of diabetes
• Use your dementia link worker from the memory service to support you with managing patients with dementia in your practice
• Publish local dementia support information on your practice website including ‘Worried About Your Memory leaflets’ which can be found here.
• Seek early consent from people with dementia for carers/family members to be involved with their care; e.g. consent to discuss diagnosis and care plan, consent to be present during consultations, consent for carer to meet GP separately about the patient. Refer patients and carers to the publication ‘Acting on behalf of a person with dementia’ which can be found here.
• Encourage patients / carers to fill in a ‘This is me‘ document when preparing for a hospital admission to record individual needs and preferences.

Other support

Meet your dementia link nurse
Link nurses from Pennine’s memory assessment service can support you with reviewing the patients on your dementia register, updating you on local support services for people diagnosed with dementia and their carers, providing training for your staff, supporting with care planning for people in more advanced state of dementia. To arrange a visit of the link nurse to your practice please contact:
Carol Rushton; carolrushton@nhs.net

Dementia United @ Stockport: refresh of our local dementia strategy
Stockport is one of the Greater Manchester boroughs working together in improving dementia care through the GM Devolution work programme ‘Dementia United’. See for more information: http://dementiaunited.net/

We are currently updating our local Stockport Dementia Strategy. The previous strategy was a commissioning strategy, our next updated dementia strategy will be in the format of a multi-agency action plan addressing improvements related to NHS England’s Well Pathway for dementia

Please email nicole.alkemade@nhs.net with any suggestions for future dementia care in Stockport and feedback on current provision for people with dementia and their carers you might have.

Specific support for people diagnosed with vascular dementia, fronto-temporal and lewy bodies dementia
In Stockport we are more and more tailoring our information, advice and support services to specific dementia diagnosis:
Please consider to refer your patients to one of the Lewy Body information sessions that is run jointly with Stockport’s Parkinson’s Specialist Nurse, our vascular dementia information sessions or our support group for people with Fronto-temporal dementia.

Please ring Pennine Care’s memory assessment service: 716 4565 for further information including how to refer a patient.

Save the date:
Study Day Vascular Dementia: 12 September 2016 – Lecture Theatre Pinewood SHH 9:30-16:00