The Greenwich Advanced Dementia Service is helping people in the borough remain in their own homes for longer by supporting carers to increase their resilience.

The service was developed by nurses and doctors working in Oxleas who work closely with partners from the Royal Borough of Greenwich, the Alzheimer’s Society, Greenwich Carers Centre, GPs and community health services.

It aims to improve the quality of life of patients by enabling them to live in their own home with their loved ones, minimise unnecessary emergency admissions to hospital, and provide a comprehensive package of community-based support for people with dementia and their families.

Greenwich Advanced Dementia Service (GADS), part of Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, assembled a team to:

• improve the quality of life of the patient, enabling them to live in their own home with their loved ones,
• minimise the patient’s emergency admissions to hospital for problems which can be handled more effectively at home,
• put a brake on escalating long-term care facility admissions by delaying until absolutely necessary,
• enable  a coordinated network of professionals to be available to home carers,
• develop carer resilience in both professional and family members so that they can contribute more effectively.

Before the service was developed, people with advanced dementia tended to be cared for in a care home, often spending time in hospital.

To date Greenwich Advanced Dementia Service has supported over 100 people to live and die in their own homes and is saving up to £265,000 a year on reduced care home costs and hospital admissions. A recent audit of 48 consecutive deaths of people with dementia under the care of the GADS team showed that 77% died at home and the remaining 23% needed only a brief hospital admission at the very end of life.

In general, 30% of local acute hospital beds are occupied by people with dementia who usually have longer admissions than others. Members of the GADS team made urgent visits to 75% of patients as an alternative to A&E,  and acute hospital admission. Over one year, nine patients experienced some form of crisis, requiring urgent home visits from the service. These would otherwise have been A&E admissions.

The video below shows stories from carers, patients, doctors and nurses about the support they have recieved from Greenwich Advanced Dementia Service.

The service was recently awarded the £35,000 second prize in the NHS Innovation Challenge Prize for Dementia

Download

• Oxleas Dementia Strategy 2013-2016
• Greenwich Memory Service
• Greenwich Older People MH Referral Form