1. The National Dementia Declaration lists seven outcomes that the DAA are seeking to achieve for people with dementia and their carers. How would you describe your organisation’s role in delivering better outcomes for people with dementia and their carers?

Home Instead Senior Care is established to enable older people to live independently within their own homes. As such we are in touch with those whose lives are being affected by dementia through providing services to individuals and supporting their families and friends affected by dementia. Our vision is to work with our clients and their significant others to achieve the outcomes of the DAA by including clients in decision making and tailoring services to meet their needs which we establish at our care consultations. Companionship services that empower the individual to live better with their dementia is at the heart of our model of service delivery and complemented by others services tailored to the client’s need when their independence changes. This includes  providing information and signposting to other supportive services and working in partnership with others to ensure the individiual’s needs are proactively addressed. We listen to the concerns of the individuals and those of their families in order to proactively problem solve and personalise their support and continued invovlement in their community. We use evidence to inform our model of care, including the training provided to our staff.

Our services offer an affordable option for the client to remain living with dementia in their own community whether that be self funding options or through supported care by their local authority.

2. What are the challenges to delivering these outcomes from the perspective of your organisation?

We are aware that rates of diagnosis are low resulting in a negative impact on the provision of services that are available to individuals. This creates a considerable burden on primary carers and can lead to carer breakdown - in turn increasing the cost of maintaining an individual with dementia in the community and may precipitate hospital admission or being automatically moved to residential care, when more affordable options could be put in place.   

Raising the public profile of dementia and its impact whilst helping create dementia friendly communities to avoid social isolation for the individual concerned is a challenge. We are keen to work in partnership with the newly formed local dementia alliance to address this issue.

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