Previous Work

Support for Dementia Carers

Share

 In a nutshell: Improving the provision of information to carers of people with dementia was identified as a priority in Yorkshire and Humber.  We are worked with local stakeholders to develop innovative solutions.

The Challenge

At least 670,000 people in England have dementia and this number is set to double in the next 30 years.  It is estimated that at least 550,000 people act as primary carers, many on their own, and when support is offered, it is often too late and focused on costly and stressful crisis management (Dementia Action Alliance (2013): The Carers’ Call to Action).

What did we do?

Identified as one of 6 high impact innovations in health in 2011(Innovation, Health and Wealth report, 2011), we worked to agree the priority support issues for dementia carers across Yorkshire and Humber so we could develop materials and activities that enabled partner organisations and other stakeholders to improve the support they provided.   Our scoping exercise in November 2013-January 2014 highlighted the need to improve the provision of information to carers.  This in turn generated two initiatives:

  • the production of an ‘Effectiveness Matters’ publication in collaboration with University of York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination
  • a one-day Regional Conference on 6th June 2014 entitled “Improving access to information for carers – getting the right information at the right time in the right way”

Future Plans

As a result of our Conference, we worked with Carers Trust to develop an information checklist that served two purposes:

  • help professionals identify where there are gaps in the information available, and;
  • signpost professionals and carers to the relevant resources within their own locality.

Once completed, we will worked with the Strategic Clinical Network to disseminate the checklist across the region and support localities with its implementation.

Support for Dementia Carers