Dementia Care

Diagnoses of dementia are rising

Dementia care in residential care settings are becoming increasingly important as diagnoses rise. In 2018, the National Institute for Health and Social Care Excellence (NICE) stated that 1 million people are due to have dementia by 2021. They updated their guidelines for the first time in 10 years, “all health and social care professionals must be properly equipped to support people with dementia at every stage.” Currently, 69% of care home residents are living with dementia in care homes in the UK.

In 2019, Person Centred Software launched a new ‘Who I Am’ feature as part of its electronic evidence of care and care planning system, Mobile Care Monitoring. The feature enables staff to provide a more responsive and personalised quality of dementia care and improve residents’ quality of life.

Benefits of ‘Who I Am’ feature for dementia care

“The Who I Am feature in Mobile Care Monitoring helps us to support our residents. We have a resident that has mental health issues and suffers with anxiety. There’s a prayer that she likes to read when she’s anxious. It’s really good to have that information available for all staff under the ‘What makes me feel better if I’m anxious or upset?’ section of the ‘Who I Am’ feature.”

Jasmine McFetters, Carer, Bernhard Baron Cottages

“When one of our ladies with dementia had to go to hospital, we provided a hospital pack with all the details from the ‘Who I Am’ document to aid staff providing her care. A hospital nurse got in contact with us to say it was the best information she had seen.”

Shari Tindle, Deputy Manager, Tilsley House

Driving quality of life in dementia care

‘Who I Am’ is modelled on Alzheimer’s Society’s ‘This is Me’ tool and other one-page profiles that are widely used in social care to improve the quality of information and ease of information sharing.

‘Who I Am’ is available on carers’ devices in a consistent and comprehensive manner. As it’s electronic, staff can access up-to-date information securely whenever they need it, even when they are offline. This instant access is particularly important for new and agency staff and supports NICE best practice guidelines on dementia care.

Along with other information, ‘Who I Am’ includes:

• Things that are important to me
• Routines
• Likes to talk about
• What makes me feel better if I am upset or anxious
• My life story
• How to best support me
• Wishes for the future

The hospital pack provided within Mobile Care Monitoring automatically collates the information from residents’ ‘Who I Am’ profiles to ensure staff fully understand residents at every stage of their health and social care journey.

Dementia care and CQC’S KLOEs

‘Who I Am’ helps care providers comply with CQC’s Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs) to improve quality of life for the 69% of residents living with dementia in UK care homes.

Notably the KLOEs C1.4 which asks, “Do staff know and respect the people they are caring for and supporting, including their preferences, personal histories, backgrounds and potential?” and R1.2 which asks,“How does the service make sure that a person’s care plan fully reflects their physical, mental, emotional and social needs…?”. ‘Who I Am’ creates a holistic resident profile that gives staff immediate insight into how best to support residents.

“It became apparent to us that whilst administration software helps care providers’ efficiency, it doesn’t actually help those delivering care. Social care really only exists because of these people, so we decided to focus on improving the lives of the care staff users. With the new capability of ‘Who I Am’ at their fingertips, carers have all the information they need to further help and support their residents.”

Jonathan Papworth, co-founder, Person Centred Software