Patients' and carers' views on dementia workforce skills
| Date | 09 December 2011 |
| Published date | 09 December 2011 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17556221111194536 |
| Pages | 195-202 |
| Author | Susan Mary Benbow,Anna Tsaroucha,Maurice Ashley,Kathleen Morgan,Paul Kingston |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Patients’ and carers’ views on dementia
workforce skills
Susan Mary Benbow, Anna Tsaroucha, Maurice Ashley, Kathleen Morgan and Paul Kingston
Abstract
Purpose – Through consultation with people living with dementia and carers, this paper aims to identify
skills that patients and carers feel need to be developed in the workforce. This work is part of a project to
develop competencies for the West Midlands dementia workforce.
Design/methodology/approach – People living with a dementia and carers were contacted through
cafe
´s, a carers’ group and memory group, and two people contributed interviews to the analysis.
All materials were analysed qualitatively using thematic analysis.
Findings – Feedback was received from 69 individuals. In total, six major themes were identified:
knowledge about dementia, person centred care, communication, relationships, support and helping
people engage in activities.
Originality/value – It is argued that people living with dementia and carers bring unique and valuable
perspectives to an analysis of the skills of the dementia workforce, which grounds the required skills in
the relationship between the worker and the person and family they are working with. This different
emphasis needs to be considered and addressed throughout dementia training and education.
Keywords Competences, Dementia workforce, Dementia training, Person-centred care,
Relationship-centred care, Users, Carers
Paper type Research paper
Background
As the population ages (Alzheimer’s Society, 2007), dementia has become a growing
challenge for services and a growing expense for the health and social care system
(Alzheimer’s Research Trust, 2010). The National Dementia Strategy (Department of Health,
2009) set out, in objective 13, the need for ‘‘an informed and effective workforce for people
with dementia’’ (p. 13), elaborating on it thus:
[. . .] people with dementia and their carers need to be supported and cared for by a trained
workforce, with the right knowledge, skills and understanding of dementia to offer the best quality
care and support (p. 66).
In the West Midlands, it had been stated even before the publication of the National
Dementia Strategy that minimum core standards of competency for Dementia care would be
used to underpin education programmes for those working in the care of people with
dementia (Saad et al., 2008).
Although objective 13 and a dementia core competency framework might seem to be clear
and simple, it is far from straight forward in practice. For example, what do we mean by ‘ ‘the
dementia workforce’’? The ‘‘dementia workforce’’ is itself a complex concept and could
include the vast majority of staff working in physical healthcare, mental healthcare, residential
and nursing care and social care. Much of the care of people with dementia is carried out by
untrained carers and it could be argued that influencing their knowledge, skills and
understanding might have a great impact on care, but would be a huge challenge. The policy
DOI 10.1108/17556221111194536 VOL.6 NO. 4 2011, pp. 195-202, QEmerald Group Publishing L imited, ISSN 1755-6228
j
THE JOURNAL OF MENTALHEALTH TRAINING, EDUCATIONAND PRACTICE
j
PAGE 195
Susan Mary Benbow is a
Professor of Mental Health
and Ageing,
Anna Tsaroucha is a
Post-Doctoral Research
Fellow, Maurice Ashley is a
Service User,
Kathleen Morgan is a
Service User and Honorary
Lecturer and Paul Kingston
is a Director of the Centre
for Ageing and Mental
Health, all in the Faculty of
Health, Centre for Ageing
and Mental Health,
Staffordshire University,
Stoke-on-Trent, UK.
The work described here was
funded by the Workforce
Deanery of the West Midlands
Strategic Health Authority. The
authors would like to thank
members of the project steering
group; the project development
forum, Approach (www.
approachstaffordshire.co.uk/);
the Alzheimer’s Society (http://
alzheimers.org.uk/); and the
individual patients and carers
who contributed throughout the
development of the work.
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