Dementia information portal podcasts
Watch podcasts on the Department of Health’s Dementia Information Portal to find out about key events and people involved in the implementation of the National Dementia Strategy. Read more »
What's new
Personal budgets for older people – making it happen
This guide focuses on how councils can make personal budgets work well for older people and their families. It looks at how to ensure they are accessible, simple to use, flexible and help to achieve the things that matter most to the people using them. Read more »
Living well with dementia bulletin, Issue 1, January 2010
This first bulletin provides a summary on the key findings of the partnership’s recent review of dementia services across the South West. Read more »
Housing for an Ageing Population Panel for Innovation report
The Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) has gathered good practice from across Europe and put together new and creative proposals to help ensure that future housing will create sustainable and inclusive homes and neighbourhoods which our ageing population want and can afford to live in. Read more »
The Lion's Face – an opera about dementia
The Lion’s Face is an opera about dementia which will use the medium of opera and poetry to describe the experiences of the patient, the carer and the research scientist. Read more »
Ageism and age discrimination in mental health care in the United Kingdom: a review from the literature
This literature review examined possible evidence of age discrimination in the provision of mental health care services for older people in the United Kingdom. Read more »
The Alzheimer's Choir
This moving documentary is an honest portrayal of the strain dementia can put on a relationship, but also the enduring nature of love and the powerful role music can play in that. Read more »
Dementia Care: sustaining the person within
The Open University has produced a free leaflet, Dementia Care: Sustaining The Person Within, to accompany the BBC programmes Can Gerry Robinson fix dementia care homes. Read more »
Can Gerry Robinson fix dementia care homes
Videos and commentary following the BBC documentary in which Sir Gerry Robinson explores the care of people with dementia in care homes. Read more »
South West dementia services review report
The overview report provides information about the review process and how the fourteen health and social care communities are taking forward implementation of the National Dementia Strategy across the South West region. Read more »
NHS Operating Framework 2010/11 includes dementia in the priorities section
The NHS Operating Framework for 2010/11 includes dementia in the priorities section, under areas to support local prioritisation (para 2.51 p 22). Read more »
National End of Life Care Programme newsletter – Dementia theme
Dementia care is the theme of the December 2009 issue of the National End of Life Care Programme newsletter. Read more »
Gloucestershire Primary Care Dementia Summit
Download the presentations and documents from the Gloucestershire Primary Care Dementia Summit. Read more »
SCIE Dementia Gateway
The Dementia Gateway contains practical tips, tools and activities on key areas as well as free e-learning programmes, developed by the Social Care Institute for Excellence in conjunction with the Alzheimer’s Society. Read more »
Gloucestershire primary care dementia summit
NHS Gloucestershire hosted a Primary Care Dementia Summit on 24th November 2009 to support the implementation of the National Dementia Strategy and the findings South West review of dementia services. Read more »
Guidance on the support of people with learning disabilities who develop dementia
Guidance on the assessment, diagnosis, treatment and support of people with learning disabilities who develop dementia. Co-published by The British Psychological Society and the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Read more »
Working together for change: using person-centred information for commissioning
This report describes a simple six-stage process that uses person centred information (for example from person centred reviews, person centred plans or support plans) to drive strategic change and commissioning. Read more »
Service specification: A floating support service for people with dementia
This service specification and case study describes a floating support for people with dementia, provided by the charity Rethink and jointly commissioned by four authorities in the South and South West of England. Read more »
Practice-based commissioning: theory, implementation and outcome
This report describes and analyses the rationale for, and implementation and outcomes of, practice based commissioning in the NHS between 2007-2009. Read more »
Managing end of life problems
This clinical knowledge summary covers the principles of palliative care, and reviews the management of some common problems in palliative care. Read more »
Commissioning domiciliary care for people with dementia and their carers
The purpose of this paper is to assist commissioners in ensuring that homecare for people with dementia is appropriate to their needs and/or the needs of their carers. It is informed by the views of people with dementia and of people who have been, or currently are, carers; and of people who are professionally involved… Read more »
Counting the cost: caring for people with dementia on hospital wards
This report provides evidence on the quality of dementia care provided on general wards in hospitals across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Using evidence received from carers and nurses on the quality of care provided the key areas of need that are not being met are discussed. These include: understanding dementia the provision of person-centred… Read more »
Pocket guide to National Dementia Strategy for care homes
This pocket guide explains how the National Dementia Strategy (NDS) affects providers and managers of care home services. Read more »
Counting the cost: caring for people with dementia on hospital wards
Alzheimer’s Society report provides evidence from over 2,400 people with dementia, carers and nurses on the quality of dementia care provided on general wards in hospitals. Read more »
Index of leadership trust
This report enables leaders and managers to recognise the factors that are fundamental to trust, and provides them with the tools to shape their behaviour to improve trust in themselves and their organisations as a whole. Read more »
Government takes action on antipsychotic drugs and dementia
The Government has outlines how it plans to take action on antipsychotic drugs and dementia in response to an independent review by Professor Sube Banerjee. Read more »
Dementia: ethical issues
A new report on ‘Dementia: ethical issues’ has been published by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics for service providers, people with dementia and carers. Read more »
Report from the Ministerial Summit on Dementia Research
The report details the views of researchers, service providers and people living with dementia who attended the Ministerial Summit on Dementia Research. Read more »
Person-centred approaches
This Community Care magazine feature on using person-centred approaches to supporting people to live well with dementia profiles the recent work of the Social Care Institute for Excellence in this field. Read more »
Living Well with Dementia "The South West Way"
The South West Dementia Strategy Group recently organised a conference to present the findings of the South West Dementia Review and to discuss the way forward. Read more »
End of life care for people with dementia
This project aimed to identify the major barriers for dementia patients and their carers in accessing good quality end of life care. The research findings suggest cost effective ways of enabling improvements. Read more »
Dementia champion pioneers changes in care home
Care home “dementia champion” Cheri Needham talks to Community Care magazine about her passion for a new approach to caring for people with dementia. Read more »
Local innovation scheme awards launched
After 10 years of celebrating and sharing, the Beacon Scheme is ending. It is being replaced by the new and exciting Local Innovation Awards Scheme. Read more »
The use of antipsychotic medication for people with dementia: Time for action
The report explores the current evidence base, the law, and practice relating to prescription of antipsychotic medication for people with dementia. Read more »
World Alzheimer Report 2009
The World Alzheimer Report 2009 presents the most comprehensive global prevalence study of dementia to date and looks at levels of mortality, disability, strain on carers and dependency. Read more »
The Nursing Times shortlist dementia ward for its palliative care
One of Cornwall’s two specialist dementia care wards has been shortlisted from over 500 entries for a top national award from the Nursing Times. Read more »
Two local units pilot a new Enabling Environment Award
Two Units from Bodmin Hospital have been chosen by the Royal College of Psychiatrists to pilot the new Enabling Environment Award. Read more »
Effective leadership development interventions: a position statement
This Health Foundation report reveals the interventions that work in creating leadership knowledge, behaviours, skills, competences, or ‘habits of mind’, relating to quality improvement. Read more »
Day unit for older people with dementia opens at Dorset County Hospital
The unit, the first of its kind in a South West Acute Hospital Trust, will offer a supportive environment for patients at risk of dementia as they receive medical treatment for other health conditions. Read more »
Contracting for personalised outcomes: learning from emerging practice
Contracting for personalised outcomes draws on learning from six local authorities who have begun to reshape their contracts, processes, range of budget holding options and relationships with the provider market to ensure that personalised services are available for everyone with care and support needs. Read more »
Living Well With Dementia: A National Dementia Strategy Implementation Plan
The National Dementia Strategy Implementation Plan describes the implementation task, arrangements for national and regional support, and the programmes that have been put in place to support delivery of Living well with dementia: a National Dementia Strategy. Read more »
Good practice in relation to working with older people experiencing dementia
This study was commissioned in order to identify and promote good practice in relation to working with older people experiencing dementia. Read more »
Dementia demonstrator sites in the South West region
This briefing provides summary information about the four dementia demonstrator sites in the South West region. Read more »
NHS Mutual: engaging staff and aligning incentives to achieve higher levels of performance
This report looks at the factors that drive staff engagement in the health service, and examines various models of employee ownership in use both within and outside the NHS. Read more »
Joint commissioning framework for dementia
The National Dementia Strategy joint commissioning framework provides best practice guidance for commissioning dementia services. Read more »
Housing and Dementia – three new resources
The Housing Learning and Improvement Network, part of the Department of Health’s Care Networks, has produced three resources on the topic of housing and dementia. Read more »
Older people living in the community – nutritional needs, barriers and interventions: a literature review
This literature review focuses on the nutritional needs of older adults living in the community, the barriers to them meeting their nutritional needs and interventions which may be successful in improving nutritional intake. Read more »
Joint commissioning framework for dementia
This framework provides best practice guidance for commissioners in the NHS and local authorities to support implementation of the National Dementia Strategy, ‘Living well with dementia’. Read more »
Prepared to care – Challenging the dementia skills gap
This report published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia (APPG) explores the scale of the challenge in training the caring professions in dementia, and how it may be met. Read more »
Extra care housing and people with dementia: A scoping review of the literature 1998-2008
This literature review identifies recent published and grey literature relating to people with dementia living in extra care housing. Read more »