Caring for older people well, and with dignity, is not only our shared purpose but also core business at Northumbria Healthcare.We know 60% of people admitted to our wards will suffer from depression, delirium or dementia.
An internal audit had highlighted that only 10% of our newly qualified doctors felt confident about meeting the needs of people with dementia and delirium.
Additionally one of our consultant psychiatrists, Dr. Andy Teodorczuk, in 2010 carried out a 2 year mixed method study to establish the learning needs of staff in relation to caring for older people. Interviews were carried out with a wide range of hospital staff and focus groups conducted with liaison teams, carers and patients. The results highlighted the following:-
•Firstly ownership emerged as a strong learning need – the sense that patients with memory difficulties did not fit the system therefore there was an expressed desire to see them cared for elsewhere.
•Related to this were negative attitudes – staff were very honest and spoke about how hard it was to care for older patients with dementia and delirium.
•Fear of hospital: From the focus groups with patients we found that staff needed to learn about just how frightening it can feel to be in hospital.
•As expected person centered care, that is to say to show respect for the values and background of a person, emerged as a strong need.
•In keeping with other studies, there was a strong need to improve recognition of delirium and dementia.
•Carer partnership: we needed to promote a more inclusive approach and understand why many feel marginalized
•Communication with the patients and also amongst team emerged as a barrier to good care.
The content of our Learning about the Person programme has been specifically designed around the findings of this 2 year study.
What we learnt about our approach to training: •The focus of training should be learning about the individual
•People with dementia and their carers must be involved in the delivery of that training
•We should have an interdisciplinary approach.
Over the last two years 20 of our teams have been supported to attend a 2 day training programme on person centred care designed to improve awareness of the needs of people with dementia, delirium and depression.
Our teams have benefited from excellent training that has left staff feeling more confident and equipped to provide person centred care to older people with dementia and delirium.
Ward environments have been transformed with an older person in mind and attitudes have changed. Our staff now welcome patients onto the ward where they have a right to be, without believing they would be better cared for somewhere else.
Carla was one of the programme participants – during the training she witnessed how music had helped a frightened man relax. Before leaving to go on maternity leave, she held him in mind as she loaded up a wide selection of easy listening tunes and donated her iPod to the ward. Not because she had to but because she wanted to.