Caring for people with dementia is one of the most difficult aspects of adult social care. The general term ‘dementia’ covers a range of underlying conditions. And people with dementia can have many different care needs that can change fairly rapidly as their condition progresses.
Our care system is beset by so many difficulties from inadequate funding, to staff shortages, high staff churn rates, ‘no jab no job’, and absences owing to Covid isolation rules. It’s probably inevitable that dementia care would be where cracks would start to show.
According to a recent report, between October 2021 and January 2022, the number of care homes with a dementia specialism in England rated ‘inadequate’ by the CQC rose from 143 to 153. Care homes classed as ‘requires improvement’ rose from 1,456 to 1,483.
Faced with gaps in their staff rosters, many homes have relied on agency staff who don’t always have the specialist training needed to meet the care needs of people with dementia.
Dementia Care Training
Because people with dementia have such a wide range of potential care needs, care training must be similarly varied. This makes devising a suitable training and development plan an intricate process.
Courses such as Dementia Awareness offer a good overview of the different types of dementia and how individuals can be affected. It also highlights how communication difficulties occur and the behaviour to avoid when dealing with an adult living with the condition.
A fully trained dementia care workforce will also be skilled in areas such as dignity and respect, dysphagia, malnutrition, wellbeing, mental capacity and dealing with challenging behaviour.
A detailed skills audit is often the first step towards ensuring you have the right balance of knowledge and skills across your team.
When it comes to filling gaps and ensuring that new staff are brought up to speed quickly, Redcrier offers courses related to dementia care in multiple formats, including eBox e-learning that combines robust training with convenience.
For more information call us on 01823 332200 or take a look at our resource centre.
