DEMENTIA CARE
Keeping Standards High
Tracey Carter, Senior Quality Manager (Dementia Care) at Exemplar Health Care, discusses how care providers can continue to uphold the principles, ethos and culture of person-centred dementia care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic has presented unique challenges for people living with dementia, as well as for those who support them.
It’s vital that health and social care workers, and
family carers, continue to take a person-centred approach to care during the pandemic, to support people with dementia to maintain, and improve, their health and wellbeing.
During this challenging time, colleagues across Exemplar Health Care have found innovative ways to support people with dementia and uphold the principles, ethos and culture of person-centred care.
At the start of the pandemic, we quickly adapted many of our ways of working, systems and processes to adhere to national guidelines and safety policies.
However, when it comes to our approach to care at this time, there’s not a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
There are currently around 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK, each with their own unique personalities and life stories.
Everyone will experience the pandemic and its effects differently, which is why it’s important to maintain a person- centred approach.
We adapted quickly and adopted a creative approach to ensure that the same quality of person-centred care was achieved with lockdown restrictions in place.
To achieve this, Exemplar Health Care divided its approach into four key areas of need:
1. THE NEEDS OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH DEMENTIA
One of the most important things for us was to identify how each individual communicates pain and discomfort, so we could monitor them for signs of COVID-19.
Some older people living with dementia may have different symptoms or are unable to communicate when they are experiencing one of the common symptoms of the virus.
We provided training to support our care teams to look for signs that might indicate that people have the symptoms of
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COVID-19, such as changes to their personality or everyday behaviours.
We also assessed potential communication challenges, like the use of full PPE which could frighten or upset people living with dementia, and continue to work with individuals and their loved ones to ease any stress. Some examples are wearing a name badge and photo on clothing, using drawings or written words to communicate and playing music to aid relaxation.
Combatting loneliness has been a huge priority during the pandemic. At Exemplar Health Care, we have kept the same colleagues working on our units so that people are supported by a consistent team who know them, which is fundamental to person-centred care.
Our teams continue to be creative in supporting people to take part in meaningful activities and engagement in our homes – including doing everyday living tasks such as laundry and cleaning to give people a sense of familiarity, routine and purpose.
Where possible, we’ve brought the outdoors inside when people are not able to go out. For example, our Activities teams have supported flower arranging or plant potting inside, as well as creating indoor beaches, to support people to maintain their hobbies and interests.
We’ve also made good use of technology during times of lockdown. At the beginning of the pandemic, we purchased iPads for each of our homes which have enabled residents to stay in touch with their loved ones, as well as provided opportunities for meaningful activity, such as virtual tours of tourist attractions or playing music.
The spaces in our homes have always been personalised to the people we support, with decorations, photos and posters tailored to their interests – this became even more important during the pandemic, as maintaining interests became key to combat loneliness and frustration.
2. FAMILY/LOVED ONES' NEEDS
Families have found it incredibly difficult and distressing not being able to physically see and be with loved ones during the lockdown period.
Throughout the pandemic, we’ve supported people to keep in touch via video calls, using systems such as Skype and Zoom.
When visiting was permitted, we implemented individual risk assessments to support safe visits, outlining what
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