The quality of care provided to people with dementia is a global concern. To improve the delivery of dementia care there is the need for appropriate and effective training for all health and social care staff, a recommendation outlined in government policy. We have developed innovative education and training packages that have been delivered nationally and presented internationally.
Our education is innovative in two ways:
1. The use of simulation in a very broad sense, using cost effective methods, including the use of Virtual Reality.
2. We evaluate the effectiveness of the programmes we deliver, immediately after delivery but also when are learners return to practice. We want to know if the programmes have influenced the learners practice. We are taking that evaluation a step further by asking care recipients if they have noticed a difference in care providers practice after they have completed one of our programmes.
We are working closely with national bodies such as Alzheimer’s Research UK and Health Education England, and health care providers thus ensuring our programmes relate directly to practice, to achieve our goal of making a difference to practice.
Click on one of the below boxes for information on A Walk Through Dementia section or Dementia Education And Learning Through Simulation 2 (DEALTS 2) programme.
The publications
Heward M, Board M, Spriggs A, Emerson L, Murphy J Impact of ‘DEALTS2’ education intervention on trainer dementia knowledge and confidence to utilise innovative training approaches: A national pre-test – post-test survey. Nurse Education Today. 2021:97;104694 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2020.104694
Hicks, B., Konovalova, I., Myers, K., Falconer, L. and Board, M., 2020. Taking ‘A walk through dementia’: Exploring care home practitioners’ experiences of using a virtual reality tool to support dementia awareness. Ageing and Society. (In Press)
Heward M, Board M, Spriggs A, Murphy J. Design and evaluation protocol for ‘DEALTS 2’: a simulation-based dementia education intervention for acute care settings" International Psychogeriatrics 2019 Jan 3:1-10. doi: 10.1017/S1041610218002193.
Heward, M., Board, M., Spriggs, A., Zietara, J. and Murphy, J., 2019. Enhanced Education – a simulation-based approach. The Journal of Dementia Care, 27 (5).
