Report: Caring for Someone with Dementia

Carers Trust Wales has launched a new report, detailing how carers of people living with dementia can be better recognised, respected and supported in health and social care settings.

This report follows a series of roundtable sessions, hosted at both a national and regional level in Wales, and attended by a wide range of experts and professionals in the field of dementia and dementia care. Some organisations represented include NHS Wales, the Shaw Foundation, Swansea University, Bangor University, Shared Lives Plus, Social Care Wales, and Alzheimer’s Society Cymru.

The report notes several reoccurring suggestions from the three sessions, as to how the sector can improve the ways they support carers of people living with dementia, including:

• increased collaboration between third sector, local government, and service providers
• prioritising respite and care support post-pandemic
• the need for more sustainable funding to meet the growing demand for services

Carers Trust Wales Head of External Affairs, Kate Cubbage, said:

"We know that carers of people with dementia need appropriate information, advice and support at all stages of their caring journey, to help them care effectively and live healthy and fulfilling lives themselves.

“In partnership with Age Cymru we're proud to be developing a range of resources to help more professionals within health and social care settings to engage effectively with unpaid carers and to give them the recognition and respect they deserve."

Christopher Williams, Age Cymru Engagement Team Manager, said:

"Older unpaid carers in Wales have ensured that some of the most vulnerable members of our society have been kept as safe as possible during the Covid pandemic, but we know that many are not getting the services or support they are entitled to receive. Health and social care professionals are ideally placed to help identify and inform these carers, not only improving the care they can provide for others, but also to ensure they have the opportunity to look after their own wellbeing too."

The roundtables have been held as part of a project developed alongside Age Cymru, with funding support from Welsh Government, aimed at directly supporting the early identification of older carers, as well as ensuring the voices of older carers are heard through our national programme. The report issued from these roundtable sessions outlines how Carers Trust Wales and Age Cymru will respond to the evidence gathered through the roundtable sessions, including:

• Establishing learning sessions for those working within the field of dementia and dementia care, so that new techniques and tools can be shared and adopted universally
• Creating a ‘carer profile’ template for carers, to be shared between organisations. This will ensure that carers have their personal situation known by professionals they work with, and will not have to continually explain their circumstances to new individuals
• Creating a ‘positive conversations’ resource for healthcare professionals, disseminating how to have positive conversations with carers, and including a glossary of medical terms associated with dementia that many carers may struggle to understand.

Read our report here.