www.mddus.com


Q&A Dr Louise Robinson, Professor of Primary Care and Ageing at Newcastle University and RCGP National Champion for Dementia


• How did you become involved in helping dementia patients? Early in my training I met a lady with possible dementia and was amazed to find there was no formal post-diagnostic support or care for her in primary care. This was around the time primary care-led diabetic clinics were being introduced and it seemed odd that we were encouraged to provide structured care for one long-term condition but people with dementia were just ignored.


• What does your role entail? I do not have a formal GPwSI dementia qualification but due to my academic career I have become an ‘informal expert’ and now provide specialist clinical advice at local and national levels, including the RCGP and Prime Minister’s National Dementia Challenge. I was the GP lead on the RCGP working group who developed the GPwSI competencies.


“Much can be done to help prevent symptoms such as agitation, confusion and depression”


Role-specific enhanced skills include


expertise in the timely diagnosis of dementia and managing long-term care of patients in and outside of care homes, including drug and non-drug interventions, nutrition, continence and skin and wound care.


Training The RCGP guidance states that a clinician working towards becoming a GPwSI in dementia would be expected to undertake recognised training and education, which may include acknowledgement of prior learning and expertise. Learning can be acquired in several ways and should include a variety of practical and theoretical elements: • experience (current or previous) of working in relevant departments


• self-directed learning with evidence of the completion of individual tasks


• attendance at recognised meetings/ lectures/tutorials on specific relevant topics


• clinical placements agreed locally


• undertaking a course from an accredited learning body (e.g. university, royal college, etc)


• attachment to a dementia unit or under the supervision of a specialist practitioner which may not necessarily be a consultant


• evidence of working under direct supervision with a specialist clinician in relevant clinical areas.


Many universities have developed


training modules that include theoretical elements followed by supervised practice and formal competence-based assessments – but work-based experience, accompanied by peer review, may be as acceptable as an academic qualification. For more information go the RCGP


Dementia web page (tinyurl.com/zdcpjos) where you can access a range of useful resources including the Guidance and competencies for the provision of service using general practitioners with special interests (GPwSI) in dementia.


• What do you enjoy most about the job? The look of relief on people’s faces when I explain dementia is not a death sentence but a long-term illness, like depression and diabetes. Although we do not have a cure, we can provide some treatments and support to help people living with the illness have as good a quality of life as possible.


• Are there any downsides? Constant frustration at the geographical inequalities in dementia care support and provision that persist around the UK.


• What do you find most challenging? Changing professional attitudes to having a more positive and confident approach to caring for people with dementia; GP attitudes seem to lag far behind the public and patients.


• What has most surprised you? How surprised families caring for a relative with dementia often are to find a GP who is both knowledgeable and interested in the condition.


• What is your most memorable experience so far? Being told recently by one of my patients with dementia that they had informed their memory clinic consultant that they did not want to attend any more as they got better care and help from their GP!


• What advice would you give to a trainee GP thinking about specialising in dementia care? Caring for people with dementia is both a privilege and a pleasure. With increasing numbers living with the illness, there needs to be many more of us who have the courage to get more involved.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16