Dementia care in hospitals - key findings and ideas from the evaluation of four projects, July 2005

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Introduction

Older people are significant users of health services. In the coming years, population growth combined with ageing will mean that a greater number of older Australians will need health and community care services. More older people in hospitals means more people with dementia, needing appropriate care.

With this in mind, the Department of Human Services Aged Care Branch, in collaboration with the Nurse Policy Unit, and Continuing Care and Clinical Service Unit, sponsored four projects on dementia-friendly care in hospitals around the state:

• Bairnsdale Regional Health Service
• Ballarat Health Services
• Southern Health
• Gippsland Health Services Consortium.

Each project was evaluated by the Lincoln Centre for Ageing and Community Care Research, Latrobe University. Evaluation highlighted the need for culture, policy and practice change—together with the involvement of families and carers—to encourage appropriate dementia care in hospitals.

Project outcomes provided many ideas and suggestions for hospitals in:

• culture, policy and practice change
• education programs and resources
• specific dementia care practice
• engaging families and carers of patients with dementia.

These ideas are presented in a series of four pamphlets available below.

You can use the series in various ways—as four stand-alone documents, or as the basis of a hospital-specific document reflecting where you’re at, or where you’d like to be.

The full evaluation report on the projects is also available for download below.

Download documents

Evaluation of education and training of staff in dementia care and management in acute settings, April 2005 (350kb, pdf)

Dementia care in hospitals - key findings and ideas from the evaluation of four projects, July 2005 (516kb, pdf)

Ideas for managers on culture change (92kb, pdf)

Ideas for managers on education (51kb, pdf)

Ideas for staff (80kb, pdf)

Ideas for supporting carer relationships (65kb, pdf)

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