Additional programme information
Please find additional information about the programme below.
Commission
The dementia in hospitals collaborative was commissioned by Scottish Government to run from September 2019 to September 2021 to support improvements in line with Commitment 7 of the Scottish Government - National Dementia Strategy: 2017-2020. The funding has been extended to March 2023 due to pauses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Partner organisations
The key partners for the programme are the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Consultants who co-designed the programme and provide local leadership to the participating hospital teams. The executive sponsorship is through the Scottish Executive Nurse Director (SEND) group – a representative of SEND chairs the delivery group and team contracts were agreed by the Executive Nurse Directors at NHS board level.
The programme is also supported by a wide range of stakeholders who form a delivery group which provides advice and guidance on programme delivery. The group has representation from:
- Allied Health Professional Directors (Scotland) group
- Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Consultant group
- Clinical leadership (Psychiatry, Psychology and Allied Health Professionals)
- Executive Nurse Director group
- National Dementia Carers Action Network
- NHS Education for Scotland
- Scottish Dementia Working Group, and
- Scottish Government dementia policy team.
Programme history
2019 – Programme launched September 2019 with commission to September 2021.
2020 – Programme paused as a result of Covid-19 March 2020. Restarted October 2020 following rescoping work to focus on one improvement priority (person-centred care planning) with a reduced number of teams.
2021 – Programme paused for second time due to ongoing Covid-19 related pressures. Restarted June 2021 and commission extended to end March 2023. Several teams paused improvement work due to local staffing capacity issues.
Evaluations and measures of success
Teams involved in the collaborative are collecting data on two measures:
- Percentage of patients within the ward who have meaningful activities recorded within their care plan daily.
- Percentage of patients in the ward who have:
- a documented person-centred plan of care which shows patient and/or carer involvement
- individualised goals identified, or under development, and
- a plan of care related to their assessed needs.
Equality impact assessment
To ensure everyone can benefit regardless of their characteristics or where they access care, we completed an equality impact assessment. This highlights key equality issues that were considered and any actions we have taken.
Improving observation practice
In addition to the collaborative, we are working with one hospital team from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde who agreed to test a prototype guidance document and change package for improving observations practice in dementia settings. This document is based on the ‘From Observation to Intervention’ guidance developed for mental health settings. It provides a more dementia-focused approach to observation practice whilst maintaining the key principles and practice strands from the original mental health work. Testing in ward settings will provide a practical, working document to support further spread of this work.