Dementia care

The nature of dementia means that managing the condition can pose unique and sometimes difficult issues for staff, both in the hospital and in the community.
(Dementia e-learning)

The scale of the challenge

  • There are currently 850,000 people with dementia in the UK
  • One in 14 people over 65 have dementia in the UK and one in 79 of the whole population.
  • In 2018 in the UK dementia was the leading cause of death for women.

(Data from Dementia Statistics Hub October 2020)

If you are looking for statistics on dementia try the Alzheimers Research UK Dementia Statistics Hub, which includes Dementia Hotspot Maps of prevalence by Westminster constituencies  and CCGs which show the wide range of prevalence rates across the country.

Dementia Training Standards Framework – developed in collaboration by Skills for Health and Health Education England in partnership with Skills for Care. The Framework, updated in 2018,  sets out the core skills and knowledge which would be transferable and applicable across different types of service provision. An accompanying handbook – Managing Success in Dementia Care – seeks to support leaders and managers responsible for training to identify resources they can use to deliver education and training activities at tier 2. Read more here.

A research team from Leeds Beckett, Bradford and Leeds Universities have developed a Dementia Training Design and Delivery Audit Tool (DeTDAT) and accompanying manual to assess how well a training package meets good practice criteria for dementia.

NHS Choices Dementia Guide for patients, families and carers. Individuals can sign up to a series of emails with advice and information.

South East Clinical Delivery and Networks (SECDN) has developed the  SECDN Dementia Care & Support Planning Toolkit to support dementia annual reviews and personalised care and support planning. The toolkit includes a flow chart guide to the approach and an example of a completed care plan.

What's happening on the ground

Follow the work of NHS England on dementia.

Dementia roadmap – an online tool to help people with dementia access care in their local area. The Roadmap is a comprehensive ‘one stop shop’ designed to reflect a patient’s needs as they progress through the disease and signpost them to relevant local resources at the right time, from diagnosis onwards.  The main audience is staff working in primary care, including GPs, nurses, dementia navigators and practice managers. Currently includes local information for a number of areas including Isle of Wight, Cornwall, Devon and North Somerset.

The Dementia and end of life care Community of Practice is a joint venture between Dementia UK and Hospice UK which seeks to bring together practitioners and clinical leaders keen to build their skills, knowledge and confidence in providing high quality palliative and end of life care for people and their families affected by dementia.

CPD resources

See the collection of resources for GPs and healthcare professionals on the RCGP Dementia page.

The NHS Health Check programme has introduced a dementia risk element to enable healthcare professionals to talk to their patients about how they can reduce their dementia risk. See the accompanying elearning here.

The Higher Education for Dementia Network, have developed a Curriculum for Dementia Education to support those designing a course which includes learning about dementia.

A SCIE Dementia resource hub for those in social care supporting people with dementia includes guidance, information and accredited training as well as new COVID-19 guidance for carers in care homes who are supporting residents living with dementia during the pandemic.

The Dementia Brain Tour is an educational video resource with chapters on the brain and different types of dementia.

Dementia Revealed: What Primary Care Needs to Know. This primer for General Practice was developed by NHS England and Hardwick CCG with the support of the Department of Health and Royal College of General Practitioners and is a aimed at GPs and practice nurses who have no previous experience of diagnosing and treating dementia. Read along side  Dementia diagnosis and management A brief pragmatic resource for general practitioners – a resource pack with the aim of supporting GPs to identify and appropriately manage dementia patients.

HETV Dementia Friendly Community training day for Practice Managers, 12 June 2014 – download the resources.

The number of people with dementia of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) origin is expected to rise significantly – a seven fold increase over 40 years. HEE have developed a film Finding Patience  which aligns to tier 1 (awareness level) dementia training, following Patience and her family as they recognise and come to terms with her dementia and ultimately seek help.

e-Learning resources

e-Dementia – from e-LfH
Developed by within Health Education England by subject experts in psychiatry and medicine for the elderly. Three 30 minute sessions on aspects of recognising dementia, with ten more advanced sessions on assessing and managing dementia, and providing high-quality care.

Management of dementia in primary care – from BMJ Learning
1 hour programme in association with the Alzheimer’s society. Covers diagnosis, symptoms and drug treatments alongside the importance of treating pain, underlying medical conditions and vascular risk factors plus meeting the needs of carers

Dementia e-learning, SCIE
An updated e-learning course which aims to raise the awareness and skills of care staff who work with people with dementia. The elearning aligns with Tier 1 of the National Dementia Training Standards Framework, which is a requirement for all staff working in social care.

The CPD Zone is brought to you by the GP schools of Health Education England working across Thames Valley and Wessex, in association with Oxford Health FT Library.​

Page last reviewed: 27 November, 2020