Developing the role of Dementia Champions in the homecare sector
Monica Leverton In progress
Monica Leverton In progress
Most people living with dementia want to remain living at home. Often they are helped to do so with the support of homecare services. However, there are concerns about the quality of homecare for people living with dementia, including people sometimes only staying in the job for a short while. Homecare workers tend to work alone, with limited supervision, training, or opportunities to develop their skills.
Dementia Champions working across health and social care services might be a valuable source of information, support and advice to homecare staff working directly with people living with dementia. However, the idea of Champions is not well established in homecare services.
This project builds on previous research which found that homecare workers want opportunities to develop, many want to be able to specialise in dementia care. They would like to talk to other professionals and be involved in care planning and reviewing for people living with dementia. If there were Dementia Champions in local areas and across services, they could work together more to support better quality care for people living with dementia. Having Dementia Champions in homecare services could also help with team working and team learning.
This study will consider how the role of Dementia Champions in homecare services could develop.
It will start by learning from the work of other Dementia Champions in some NHS and social care services. The project will then get a ‘real world’ in-depth understanding of what working as a Dementia Champion involves by asking people what works well and what can be improved. It will also look at a selection of online homecare dementia-specialist and Dementia Champion job descriptions to understand what this work currently involves.
The team of researchers will work with people affected by dementia (carers and people living with dementia), and homecare workers and managers in this study. A workshop will be held where the team will think about how to take what they have learned so far, and develop the Dementia Champions role for what might be needed and wanted in homecare services.
Finally, the team will speak to people working in homecare (managers and care workers), and people living with dementia and family members who use homecare services, to understand how Dementia Champions could work within homecare, and what would be needed to support them.