Dementia Care Matters is a
leading international dementia care culture change organisation based in the
UK, Canada and Australia. We provide consultancy, learning development,
training resources and practice based research. We believe a new culture of
care comes from focussing on a model of emotional intelligence.
The heart of care is all about emotional care. This requires a shift in
care services from only providing task based care. The shift from ‘doing’ it to
achieving real emotional connection is at the heart of ‘being’ person centred.
Dementia Care Matters has a “Feelings Matter Most” approach. Life is an
emotional journey; we all crave real human connection. This applies even more
to people living with dementia. People learn to trust emotions and rely more on
themselves as feeling beings rather than thinking beings.
This philosophy comes from the knowledge that people experiencing dementia
live with a condition that affects their ability to process facts, logic and
thinking. However, feelings and a
persons’ spirit remain. In the absence
of being able to rely on facts, logic and thinking along with this experience
of dementia, feelings become more important.
As dementia progresses, the expression of feelings becomes more vital in
how people living with dementia communicate and experience the world around
them.
The training
we offer is about exploring the ideas personally that underpin these
approaches; examine how they fit with their own experience of working in
dementia care, in supporting people living with dementia and to think how you
can improve the daily lived experience of people with dementia by being a part
of this whole philosophy.
The phrase ‘person centred care’ is used in this model of
care as it is in many other dementia care learning programmes. However, we offer this perspective:
From our experience care settings do not change and become
‘person centred’ as a result of just having training, standards and
competencies. Care settings change because the people leading it have faced the
truth about the experience of people with dementia living in aged care
homes. The truth is that many care
settings are consumed with getting ‘tasks’ done whilst people with dementia sit
bored and lonely in lounges.
Dementia Care Matters has conducted over 750 audits in aged
care homes and we find that on average people living with dementia are not
living but instead experiencing ‘neutral care’ (boredom, tasks being ‘done’ to
them in silence, being asleep) for 70% of the time we audit.
Therefore this model of care aims to challenge beliefs and
attitudes that underpin much of current dementia care practices. It also aims
to support, inspire and reinforce beliefs that many committed staff already
have about person centred dementia care.
At Dementia Care Matters we encounter managers, nurses and
care staff supporting people living with dementia for whom the ‘Feelings Matter
Most’ approach fits exactly with who they are and why they came to work with
people living with dementia in the first place. We believe that person centred care begins with
ourselves. How can people be expected to implement a person-centred approach if
they themselves are not treated in a person-centred way at work or in their
personal lives? It’s about getting back to basics.
Step inside a Butterfly Dementia Care
Home in the UK, Australia & Canada where like a butterfly, the people
working there are transforming their family members’ lives with gentle
flitting, colour, movement, touch and stillness.
Gone are the uniforms, drug trolleys,
staff toilets, large dining rooms, and features of an institution. People are
no longer seen as ' residents ' but as family - the old culture of ‘them and us
' swept away. Task orientation, standing around watching people eat, ‘doing to’
people and having staff notices ' put up ‘in peoples’ own home have no place in
this model of care. Detached management styles and an over focus on processes
belong to the malignant social psychology of the past.
Instead people living and working
together come alive sharing their histories, eating, laughing, and supporting
each other to recall who they were. Living in the moment is key - helping
people to be reached and connected to whoever they now need to ' be '.
The driving force behind this movement
in dementia care Dr David Sheard, Founder of Dementia Care Matters left his
employment in 1995, after 15 years in the UK National Health Service, with the
words “I won't run factories in dementia care anymore.”
Dementia
Care Matters offers Care Home Development, Learning Products and Resources,
Tailored Consultancy and Training, Mattering in Hospital and University
Recognised Learning in person centred care, leadership and training skills.
The Dementia Care Matters Australian Team is available to help transform
your organisations culture! Please contact us info@dementiacarematters.com or
visit our website www.dementiacarematters.com.
Written by: Helen Blayden, National Director of Dementia Care Matters
Helen Blayden is an experienced Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & health care industry. Skilled in Dementia Care, Nursing Education, Coaching, Medical-Surgical, and Medication Administration. Strong professional with a Diploma in Frontline Management focused in Aged Care from Positive outcomes.
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