NEW Guest Post via Theresa Douglas -Promoting Excellence in DementiaVCare, Treatment and Support

Hi 

Delighted  to welcome back Theresa Douglas, who is the Project Lead for Dementia and Leadership Consultant at NHS Education for Scotland.  Last year Theresa wrote a great piece for us on the role of the ‘Promoting Excellence’ framework in supporting improvements in dementia care, and is back to update us on the past year’s work and to share some new learning resources. Many thanks to Theresa for another great blog – for all her latest updates, you can keep up with her on Twitter @DouglasNES

Since my last blog in May 2014 there has been further progress in Promoting Excellence in Dementia Care, Treatment and Support across NHS Scotland and Social Services. I can’t quite believe it’s been a year (they say time flies when you’re enjoying yourself!) however it has, and a great deal has been achieved and I would like to share that with you.

For those of you who haven’t seen our previous blog here is the link

https://dementiacarervoices.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/promoting-excellence-in-dementia-caretreatment-and-support/

Reading it will give you important ‘foundation’ information which I don’t want to repeat here, rather, I want to build on that and let you know about all the exciting developments since.  So, if you haven’t read it yet, go on, do that now!

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) have continued to work together in partnership and have developed more education and learning resources to support you, colleagues and staff generally across health and social services to achieve the level of the Promoting Excellence  education framework appropriate to their role.

All the resources can be accessed, free, at http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/education-and-training/by-theme-initiative/mental-health-and-learning-disabilities/our-work/dementia.aspx  This includes the NEW ones which cover;

• Delirium
• Promoting Excellence in supporting people through a diagnosis of dementia
• Scottish Ambulance service dementia learning resource

The SSSC has produced a new Trainer’s Guide to accompany the online resource Enhanced dementia practice for social workers and other professionals.

This guide is now available for trainers working with newly qualified social workers (NQSW), social workers and other professionals who work in adult care and community settings, particularly as frontline practitioners and team managers. The guide shows how the online resource can be used to enhance dementia practice across teams or organisations.

If you are looking to connect with other people who are interested in dementia and remain up to date with what is happening, visit the Dementia Managed Knowledge Network at

http://www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk/dementia/whats-new!—learning-resources.aspx

Over and above creating additional learning and education resources, NES and the SSSC have been working with the Scottish Government, the University of the West of Scotland and Alzheimer Scotland to continue to develop the capacity and capability of the dementia workforce.  On the 28 January 2015, a further 100 health and social services professionals, from all parts of the country, graduated to become the latest additions to Scotland’s pioneering Dementia Champions Programme.  The graduates are the fifth cohort to complete the programme and will bring the number of Dementia Champions in Scotland to over 500.  Each Champion is dedicated to bringing about improvements in the experiences and outcomes of care and treatment for people with dementia.  Cohort 6 of this excellent programme has just started and soon we will have more than 600 of these highly trained staff, from a range of disciplines working around the country,

Click the link to see a video from the graduation event to hear what its all about http://www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk/dementia/news-and-events/conferences-and-educational-events.aspx

No doubt 2015 will fly past just like 2014 and much will once again be achieved – good luck with playing your part in this national movement for change and improvement.

Theresa Douglas
Project Lead for Dementia and Leadership Consultant 

NHS Education for Scotland

@DouglasNES