Walking with Dementia – for registered healthcare professionals

This session will be delivered by Esther Mackillican and Dr Julie Taylor

Esther has worked as a specialist in dementia care for 15 years, starting in care homes in London and Somerset before training as a nurse 8 years ago. She is hugely passionate about ensuring all people living with dementia and their carers have access to timely, appropriate and personalised care, including advance care planning and that their decisions about End of Life care are heard and acted on. As an Admiral Nurse for Dorothy House her role is supported by the team at Dementia UK which enables all of us and those we support to access their resources available to people affected by dementia.

As a nurse, Julie is passionate about evidence based practice. Her PhD followed people through from pre to post diagnosis, exploring adjustment and in some case acceptance. As a senior lecturer she is vastly experienced in teaching from T-levels and TNA, through Undergraduate to Postgraduate Masters levels. Having been at Dorothy House for two years, this has reaffirmed her belief that the best teachers are the patients and their families.

For any Healthcare Professional who has an interest in supporting patients with Dementia who are Palliative or End of Life.

The course is to give HCPs the knowledge and skills to provide safe and effective care when working with their patients who have been diagnosed with Dementia, to improve comfort and quality of care

Supported by the Ambitions Framework (NHS England » Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care: A national framework for local action 2021-2026)

Ambition number 3: That states:

“Maximising comfort and wellbeing

My care is regularly reviewed and every effort is made for me to have the support, care and treatment that might be needed to help me to be as comfortable and as free from distress as possible.”

Living Well With Dementia: a national dementia strategy – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The course will start by having a recap of the anatomy and physiology of Dementia is and how having the diagnosis can impact on the person and their family.  It will also explore how Advanced Care Planning is vital and how to approach these conversations.

The afternoon will be small group learning looking at different techniques around care, including recognising delirium or deterioration, the use of specific medication and therapeutic/complementary techniques that may benefit your patients.

The following will be covered:

• What is Dementia and how does it impact both physically and psychologically on patients and their families.
• When do we need to talk about ACP and EoL care
• Recognising signs and symptoms of advanced Dementia and End of life.
• Assessment Tools, and when these are useful.
• Multi-sensory environments, how can we stimulate or change our environment.
• Therapeutic touch and its usefulness