Leeds Irish Health & Homes

We are a health and well-being organisation with many years experience of supporting people across a wide range of issues. Originally focussing on the needs of the Irish community our success in developing individual tailored support now also enables us to provide high quality services to the wider community too.

Updated:
24 January 2019
Location:
Yorkshire and Humber
Sectors:
Health, Housing Sector, Voluntary Sector, Community organisations, Research Sector
Local Alliances:
Leeds Dementia Action Alliance

1. Action Plan

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?

We are members of the Leeds Dementia Partnership and the BME Dementia Forum. We set up, and now manage, the Aran Home Support Service, supporting people with mild to moderate dementia to remain independent at home for as long as possible. We are members of Irish Memory Loss Alliance (Cuimhne) and support this national campaign to address the needs of all Irish living in Britain who experience all forms of memory loss, inclusive of age–related forgetfulness and all forms of dementia. All staff have undertaken Person-Centred Dementia Awareness training with our Aran staff also benefitting from Reminiscence Skills Therapy training. New for 2019 is our offer to conduct Dementia Information Sessions at Leeds Irish Centre for those with dementia, their families and carers. We want to work in partnership with other organisations in the city to help make the Irish, and wider community, dementia aware, and dementia friendly. We are reviewing our dementia services with a view to developing new services to support those with dementia (eg Cognitive Stimulation Therapy).

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

Challenges include maintaining a presence at every meeting of the Partnership and BME Forum. Not having the time to evaluate the effectiveness of these meetings in promoting cohesiveness among the many organisations who influence the Leeds Dementia Strategy. Recruiting the right staff to deliver a high quality service remains a challenge, particularly for Aran, and funding to support expansion is needed to aid it's success. Raising sufficient money to support Aran and other potential dementia projects is an ongoing challenge. 

Member website

www.lihh.org

2. Actions

  • To review our dementia services

    We are undertaking a review of our dementia offering with a view to exploring innovative and creative ways of supporting people with dementia, their families and carers. This will involve gathering intelligence from other organisations who provide dementia services within and outside of the region, attending conferences and events to learn about creating dementia friendly services, and seeking funding for agreed pilot projects.

    Status:
    Initial Scoping

    2019 - First Quarter Update

    Set up a Strategy Review Group in October 2018 Met with NHS Leeds North CCG Integrated Commissioning and Transformation Manager, Dementia,on 9/11/18 Attended the Housing & Care 21- Rising to the Dementia Challenge- Conference on 21/11/18 Met with CCG Dementia Lead on Attending the Creating Dementia Friendly Conference in Manchester on 29/01/19

  • Set up a high quality home support service for people with dementia by 30th August 2017

    We wish to pilot a scheme which supports, amongst others, people with dementia and allows them to have a good quality of life. We want to ensure that people have choice and dignity within this support and aim to have well-trained, motivated and caring staff.We are concerned that current provision is under-resourced and therefore see this as a pilot scheme to see if it is sustainable.

    Status:
    Completed

    2017 - Third Quarter Update

    The Service Manager continues to promote Aran Home Support among a variety of organisations including the Memory Services, Social Workers, and Neighbourhood Networks.

    Referrals are received from family, occupational therapists, social workers, joint care managers, service delivery managers and patient liasion advisors.

    2017 - Second Quarter Update

    We appointed a Dementia Services Development Manager who was tasked with setting up a Home Support service for people with dementia and Memory Loss.

    We set up Aran Home Support, a not for profit, self-paying, culturally sensitive service offering support in the home for those with dementia and memory loss.

    We have recruited Dementia Home Workers all of whom have expertise in this area.

    We have developed the referrals and assessment process.

    We have produced a separate staff handbook specifically for this service which includes the Code of Conduct for Healthcare Support Workers and Adult Social Care Workers in England and relevant NICE quality standards, because we want to ensure that our staff will provide the highest quality care.

    We consulted with Leeds Beckett University in order to have access to the most up to date information in relation to developments around the treatment and impact of dementia.

    We ran a marketing campaign in December 2016 delivering our message about Aran Home Support in person to our Luncheon Clubs, our Tenant’s Christmas party, the NHS Memory Services, Leeds North Clinical Commissioning Group, the Dementia Strategy Board, Alzheimer’s Society, Carer’s Leeds and Shared Lives to name a few. This campaign continues with flyers being delivered to the Wellbeing Co-ordinators for Connect Health, GP surgeries, Care Centres, Dementia Cafés, Churches, Resource Centres and Day Centres and One Stop Centres around Leeds.

    We currently receive referrals through Adult Social Care and from private individuals.

  • We will work with other BME groups in Leeds to ensure that the needs of Irish and other BME people with dementia get access to culturally relevant support

    Through membership of Leeds Dementia Strategy Board and the BME Dementia Forum we will raise awareness amongst providers, policy-makers and the public of the needs of Irish and other BME community members for the need for culturally apporpriate support

    Status:
    Being implemented

    2017 - Third Quarter Update

    The Dementia Services Manager attended the most recent BME Forum and is building relationships with the other members.

    2016 - Third Quarter Update

    We presented our report on Memory Loss and the needs of the Irish Community Leeds to the Dementia Strategy Board.

    We hosted an event at the Leeds Irish Centre raising awareness about the importance of culture when delivering services to individuals with memory loss and dementia. 

← Return to members Back to top ↑