Alzheimer Scotland calls for a radical reform of community care services for people with dementia

Alzheimer Scotland has just launched a new report, Delivering Integrated Dementia Care: The 8 Pillars Model of Community Support, which calls for a radical reform of the way we deliver community care services for people with dementia, their carers, partners and families. This is the first major public health report to demonstrate the real difference that could be made to people’s lives through the integration of health and social care in Scotland.

Scotland has already made significant progress in the priority areas of the National Dementia Strategy for Scotland (2010): working to improve standards of acute hospital care and implementing the Five Pillars Model of Post-Diagnostic Support, as developed by Alzheimer Scotland. Alzheimer Scotland believes that these achievements will lead to significant improvements in quality of life for people with dementia and their carers. However, the present lack of cohesion between health and social care services means that there is still much to be done to ensure that all people affected by dementia have access to consistent, therapeutic, high quality, personalised support services.

Delivering Integrated Dementia Care: The 8 Pillars Model of Community Support presents a blueprint for the future: an Eight Pillars model that will enable health care interventions to work hand-in-hand with social care interventions. The report demonstrates how dementia is an illness with many social implications; one which can be tackled most effectively through a model that integrates and co-ordinates health and social care to best meet the needs of the person with dementia and the people supporting them.

 We wish to work alongside The Scottish Government, NHS Boards, local authorities and other bodies, to ensure they use the Eight Pillars as a portal to deliver equal access to the best possible treatments and support for every person with dementia. Only through doing this can we be sure that we are using resources to the best possible effect to enable people to live in their own homes, in their own communities and with their families for as long as they choose.

 Anything less than this is not true equality and nothing less than this will satisfy the basic human rights of people with dementia and their families to live as equal and valued citizens of Scotland. Henry Simmons, Chief Executive of Alzheimer Scotland

 

Comments of support for Delivering Integrated Dementia Care: The 8 Pillars Model of Community Support include the following:

The Scottish Government’s emphasis on dementia as a national priority has led to improvements in services over the past few years. However, there remains a long way to go to produce world class care and support for people with dementia and their carers. With the forthcoming integration of health and social care, there is an opportunity to look at services for people with dementia in their entirety, and to ensure that they are much more coordinated. This is an important document which should form the basis of taking this forward. There is urgency around this, because of the projected increase in the number of the people with the diagnosis. Graham A Jackson, Associate Medical Director Old Age Psychiatry, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

This is a crystal-clear, evidence based approach to improving the lives of people with dementia and their families.  Everyone can learn from this to shape best practice. Duncan McKay, Head of Social Work, North Lanarkshire Council

The Alzheimer Scotland 8 Pillars approach is founded upon equality, dignity and inclusion.  It is a thorough and evidence-based model that recognises the very personal needs of people with dementia and their carers. The model provides clear guidance to those commissioning heath and social care services on how the individual needs of those adapting to a diagnosis of dementia can be comprehensively met. Faculty for the Psychology of Older People (Scottish Branch), part of the British Psychological Society

A practical  vision  of  integrated  health  and  social  care  as  applied  to  people  with  dementia and a useful  starting  point  for  deliberations  on  Scotland’s  2013  national  dementia  strategy.  David Findlay, Consultant Psychiatrist at NHS Tayside and Clinical Lead in the Scottish Dementia Clinical Research Network

The way forward set out by this model is timely as it builds on the existing foundations of dementia care and will help deliver better post-diagnostic support in the community. As well as this, it sets out a clear way for the NHS and local authorities to provide care and support for people with dementia in a co-ordinated and joined-up manner, just as the agenda for health boards and local authorities to provide truly integrated services gathers pace. Taking into account all of the needs and desires of a patient is fundamental to nursing so nursing teams are going to be crucial to the delivery of this personalised model. Given the number of people with dementia is continuing to grow, we do believe that the next dementia strategy should include this type of approach if the needs of people with dementia – and their carers – are to be properly met. Theresa Fyffe, Director, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland