Living well with dementia in care homes

You are offered opportunity to maintain your brain health, independence and cognitive skills through meaningful activity whilst living in a care setting.

For extra information, evidence and best practice please scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Regional offerings

Housing for People Living With Dementia in Greater Manchester - From Policy to Practice

The report and recommendations within it are part of an extensive period of consultation over the past 18 months and including more than 250 stakeholders across housing, health and social care in Greater Manchester, alongside people with lived experience of dementia, carers and loved ones.
Weblink: https://dementia-united.org.uk/housing/

National offerings

Age UK

Age UK is the country's leading charity dedicated to helping everyone make the most of later life. Providing advice, support, information, fundraising, local services
Telephone: Advice line 0800 678 1602 free to call 8am - 7pm 365 days of the year
Weblink: https://www.ageuk.org.uk

Alzheimer’s Society

The Alzheimer’s Society provides reliable and up to date information to help you with every aspect of living with dementia.
Telephone: National Dementia Helpline: 0300 222 1122. Open 9.00am. – 5.00pm. Monday to Friday & 10.00am. – 4.00pm. Saturday and Sunday.
Weblink: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/

Arts 4 Dementia

Art 4 Dementia is a charity with a website has resources, training, art programmes that are dementia friendly and much more. Their aim is to help preserve a fulfilling active life for longer for the person living with dementia.
Weblink: https://arts4dementia.org.uk/

Personalised Care in the NHS

Personalised care is based on ‘what matters’ to people and their individual strengths and need.
Weblinks:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/personalisedcare/
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/comprehensive-model-of-personalised-care.pdf

Evidence

Evidence from the Institute for Public Policy Research suggests that many older people are dissatisfied, lonely and depressed, and many are living with low levels of life satisfaction and wellbeing. These problems are widespread in older people living in care homes (Institute for Public Policy Research. Older people and wellbeing, 2008). Research by the Alzheimer's Society has shown that many care homes are still not providing person-centred care for older people (Alzheimers Society. Home from home report, 2007). One of the major problems identified was that older people in care homes do not have access to enough activities or ways to occupy their time. It has also been reported that many care home residents have problems accessing NHS primary and secondary healthcare services (British Geriatrics Society. Quest for Quality, 2011). A lack of activity and limited access to essential healthcare services can have a detrimental impact on a person's mental wellbeing.

Older people in care homes should be treated with dignity and as individuals who have choice and control over how they live their lives and the care they receive. Empowering older people in care homes to be involved in all decisions about their lifestyle and care is fundamental to their mental wellbeing.

Best Practice Resources

National Institute for Care Excellence Quality standard [QS50] "Mental wellbeing of older people in care homes": for further information click here

Best practice includes:

There should be daily opportunities for residents to maintain their brain health and cognitive skills through a healthy lifestyle, meaningful activities (e.g. music, arts, gardening, animal-assisted therapy, and physical activity) and a welcoming, dementia-friendly, social environment for all residents and visitors, drawing on community assets and the VCSE sector as appropriate (See resources on dementia friendly environments).
The dementia diagnosis and holistic needs of individuals should be recorded in a single personalised care plan as part of an integrated care record, accessible to all involved in the person’s care (primary care, secondary care, social care, VCSE, and relatives, etc), in line with principles outlined in the Dementia Good Care Planning Guide.
The care plan should be developed in partnership with the resident where this is possible, with input from the family/carer where appropriate, and include advance care planning/end of life care needs and preferences, as well as timescales for review.
Care home staff should consider using personalised support tools such as the “This is Me” document and memory boxes to enable person-centred care and avoid potential distress.

Further resources:

The Framework for Enhanced Health in Care Homes can be found Here
Managing Medicines in Care homes NICE guidance can be found Here