Promoting Excellence in Dementia Care,Treatment and Support

                                           

 Taken from our new dementia Carer voices web- site 

 A warm welcome to our second guest contribution to the Dementia Carer Voices blog, providing an insight into the work being undertaken by our partners across the sector to improve the lives of people living with dementia and their carers.

This week, we are delighted to introduce Theresa Douglas, Dementia Project Lead and Leadership Consultant with NHS Education for Scotland, who has taken time out to tell us about the role of the ‘Promoting Excellence’ framework in supporting improvements in dementia care. 

Scotland’s second National Dementia Strategy was launched in June 2013. This 3 year strategy builds on the first 2010 strategy and contains 17 commitments to continue to drive forward improvements in the care and treatment for people with dementia, and their families and carers, across health and social services.

This includes a commitment to continue to improve staff skills and knowledge by working with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to progress a comprehensive health and social services workforce development plan built on Promoting Excellence: A framework for health and care staff working with people with Dementia, their family and carers. You can access the framework and the related education and training resources by visiting http://www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk/home/portals-and-topics/dementia-promoting-excellence.aspx 

The Promoting Excellence education framework;

• details the knowledge and skills all health and social services staff should aspire to achieve in relation to the role they play in supporting people with a diagnosis of dementia, and their families, and carers.
• is aspirational and future focussed – meaning it is not a just a description of what we do now – it is what we aspire to do in the future to support delivery of the aspirations and change actions outlined in Scotland’s National Dementia Strategy.
• details the knowledge and skills that will inform new ways of working for all health and social services staff to ensure we enable people with dementia, and their families and carers, to maximise their rights, choices and health and wellbeing at all stages of their unique dementia journey.

Wherever you are working in health and care services, whatever your role, you need to know about Promoting Excellence and the level of knowledge and skills you need to have. There are arange of education and learning resources available to support your development and new ones being developed currently.

 

Another useful resource to support staff in health and care is the Dementia Managed Knowledge Network (MKN), offering access to up-to-date information, new resources and opportunities for discussion. Joining this network will enable you to become part of a growing community of people with an interest in sharing knowledge about improving care and support for people with dementia, their families and carers. Full details of how to join the network can be found by following this link.

This is a really interesting time to be part of a national workforce development and service improvement programme designed to build on the good practice and ways of working already established in some places and, where necessary, change the way staff go about their day to day work in order to ensure people who have dementia, their families and carers have the right support to achieve their personal outcomes.

Theresa DouglasProject Lead – Dementia, and Leadership Consultant with the National Leadership UnitNHS Education for Scotland