Abstract

The correlation between 'disengagement' and illness in people with dementia living in long-term care settings is becoming more widely recognised, and developing and adapting front-line staff responses to the changing needs of individuals is a crucial factor in addressing this problem.

This book presents a complete practical framework for whole person assessment, care planning and review of persons with dementia or signs of dementia (including those with learning disabilities) who are in need of, or already receiving, health and/or social support. The book provides photocopiable assessment forms, guidelines for carrying out the assessment, and suggestions for tailored interventions based on the profile that emerges from the assessment process. The authors also include a clear explanation of the five theoretical components of dementia that are considered in the assessment: health, biography, personality, neurological impairment and social psychology. This good practice guide will provide a step up to the challenge of providing person centred care as a minimum standard rather than just an ideal.

Care workers in residential settings and social workers assessing clients for their support requirements will find this an essential resource.

It is often easier to adopt the value of person-centred care without being clear what it means in terms of day-to-day practice reality. This book excels at being very clear about exactly what the processes involve and gives suggestions for how they should be undertaken.
Research, Policy & Planning
At last, here's a superbly thought-out and designed tool and format for care planning... This book is truly a "good practice guide" and has all you need to use care planning properly, but you'll have to work at it because you have to understand what you're doing... Buy it and USE it!.
Standards for Practice
I found this book to be useful and practical. One of its strengths lay in its participatory intentions and if practitioners followed these guidelines, they would go a further step towards enhancing service user and carers' confidence in the purpose of planning and attention to sharing information on a more equal footing when thinking about how care and support can bre enriched within different environments.
British Journal of Social Work
One of the Bradford Dementia Goup good practice guides, this book will be well used by carers working with older people. It offers up-to-date and theoretically sound information, with practical assessment forms that can be photocopied... This is an excellent resource for staff in care homes who want a comprehensive guide to planning care for people with dementia.
Nursing Standards, Gary Blatch, Dementia Stragegy Manager, South Essex Parntership University NHS Foundation Trust, Southend-on-Sea
I greatly enjoyed reading this well-presented, practice-orientated publication and positively recommend it. I agree with the authors that there has never been a better time to promote new ideologies and positive ways of working with people with dementia.
Quality in Ageing and Older People
Hazel May is a state registered occupational therapist with a Master's Degree in Philosophy and Health Care. She currently works for the Bradford Dementia Group as a dementia care practice development consultant and trainer based from her home in Wiltshire. Paul Edwards is also a dementia care practice development consultant and trainer with the Bradford Dementia Group. Paul is a mental health nurse by profession, and previously spent many years developing person centred practice in the NHS. He lives in Leicestershire. Professor Dawn Brooker is the Director of the University of Worcester Association for Dementia Studies. Professionally qualified as a clinical psychologist, she has over twenty-five years' experience working to improve the quality of care for people with dementia as a clinician, as a service manager and as an academic.
The whole ties things together very neatly and the book will be treasured by those who use it. Let us hope that this will be many, for these pages will help poeple turn good intentions into good practices.
For Dementia Plus
Like many (but sadly not all) training materials, this guide is set out in a format that is easy to read and adapt. The section on cognitive ability is, as the authors comment, surprisingly absent in much training material for people supporting people with dementia.
Dementia