3. Improved quality of care / Rehabilitation

3. Improved quality of care / Rehabilitation
Objectives:

Improved health care through Informed family carers

Relieving of carer stress and burnout

Improved quality of care through the public health system

Informed and Effective Workforce

Comments/suggestions

§ What to watch out for

o The urban rural divide should also be accounted for in the strategy and one should be realistic about what rural health workers can do in 6 hrs of full-time work as they are already overburdened.

§ Diagnosis and care services

o Offer high quality care and support through memory clinics, day-care centers, and respite care centers.

o Set quality standards for care. Simple guidelines to be used for ensuring minimum quality standards in these clinics and in public health systems

o Focus on priorities for care-givers - access to continuity of support, access to good-quality information about dementia and local help available, access to good-quality care at home, in hospital or in a care home – provided by people with an understanding of dementia, access to peer support.

o Through support groups empower carers to make choices in caring for their family member suffering from Alzheimer's Disease

o Support and inspire carers to improve the quality of care rather than just have the basic needs of the patient, attended to
§ Training of personnel in dementia”.

o Stress on the benefits of training – the task of caring for a dementia patient is extremely difficult as it involves handling of wandering patients, aggression, incontinence and eventually round-the-clock care. Training is needed to enable caregivers to provide appropriate, competent and sensitive care and support and at the same time, prevent burnout.

o Who should be trained?

o Persons with dementia, immediate family, care staff, general health care professionals, and volunteers from community.

o Other aspects of training - levels of training need to be appropriate for the corresponding group of people. Critical focus areas in training include understanding the disease, skills to manage challenging behaviour and strategies for helping families and caregivers cope with the emotional challenges of caring for a resident with Alzheimer's disease.

o Standardise content of geriatric/dementia care training

o Have at least one trained care giver in care homes- incentive and/or legislation

o Make funds available for training programs, workshops