Suggestions on Creating and Assessing Elercare Facilities, training attendants. Dementia Care Notes, India.

From Swapna Kishore, Dementia Care Notes, India:

"At a personal level, I have already added my suggestions for evaluating facilities on my page here", on:  

• Home nursing services
• Home-delivery pharmacy
• Home visits for dementia patient assessment
• Dementia Day Care
• Observation/ behaviour assessment stay
• Dementia Respite Care and Long-term stay facilities

link: http://dementia-care-notes.in/caregivers/toolkit/using-services/

The dementia-specific support available in India in 2010 as published in the (Source:Dementia India Report, 2010, table 4.1):

• Residential care facilities: 6
• Day care: 10
• Domiciliary care services: 10
• Support groups: exact data not available
• Memory clinics: 100
• Help lines: 10

Suggestions for training and using attendants here (including aspects like verification) on:

• When to consider using trained attendants
• Sources for trained attendants
• What to look for in a good attendant
• Orienting the attendant for patient care
• Family’s adjustments to the attendant
• Safety and security
• Supervising and counselling the attendant
• Coping with the attendant’s absence
• Summing it up

link: http://dementia-care-notes.in/caregivers/toolkit/using-trained-attendants-for-dementia-home-care/


As suggestion for would-be-volunteers and organizations, I have also placed my ideas on how to help new facilities come up, in a post here:

"Thoughts in this direction, for what I think may be a starting point:

• Create “concept papers” that discuss possible project scopes and pros and cons of these for setting up various facilities (like home care agencies and respite care), so that wannabe entrepreneurs can decide what would interest them and then get started on preparing a project report for potential promoters, funders, banks. Make these concept papers available free of cost.

• If such ventures (good quality agencies and respite care and so on) are not commercially viable, create models for streamlining subsidies and for supplementing these enterprises with fund-generating activities;

• Create detailed checklists and maybe even sample plans (floor layouts, equipment specifications, nursing plans, rehabilitation plans, etc.) for all aspects that such enterprises may need, and a database of suppliers/ importers/ construction agencies that can help set up the agency/ respite care.

• Create lists of all statutory compliances and clearances such a venture will require, and maybe some contact information for resources to know more about what each of these entail. These things vary across states, and so statewise guidance is needed.

• Create training material that attendant-supplying agencies and respite cares can use to train their staff. Make it available (perhaps free). Maybe also conduct classes for them

• Have a system of supervising and grading the functioning of such enterprises on a regular basis, a certification that needs renewal. Have a database of certified agencies/ respite care available publicly.

• Have ongoing refresher courses to make sure the management and staff of such enterprises remains state of art on dementia care

• Have surprise checks on approved agencies/ respite care and on the services they offer, and also gather customer feedback to suggest improvements/ corrections

• Use some high-quality, well-run facilities as samples and nodal points to disseminate information on what a good agency/ respite care involves"

link: http://swapnawrites.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/trained-attendants-and-respite-care-for-dementia-sharing-suggestions-for-volunteers-from-india/