This two-year project addresses the need to improve training provision for those caring for dementia sufferers, both in the formal adult care sector and as family and friends. It builds a partnership of five organisations from five countries, who bring together complementary expertise and experience in senior care, adult training, e-learning, software coding and the development of training programmes. A multinational network of Associated partners will also be involved and will benefit from the project including Vocational Training providers, care providers, professional associations, local authorities and national organisations fighting dementia.
The focus of this Strategic Partnership is to develop an Integrated Platform to be used as tool for dementia care and a Vocational Education Training Package at a European level in order to:
• improve the ways care professionals are trained to work with patients to address individual needs
• provide them with the necessary digital skills, communication, problem solving and team building skills to support the care of dementia sufferers;
• make the methodology accessible to informal carers in domestic settings;
• ultimately improve dementia sufferers' condition
In order to reach our aims, the objectives of this project are therefore to:
• develop a platform to be used as a multilingual tool in dementia care, based on reminiscence therapy, allowing users to record and later use memories in the format of sound, images, text or videos
• establish a set of training tools (a training framework, 5 modules, 5 videos, 5 webinars)
• pilot, test, evaluate and refine the training resources through training events and collaboration with our associated partners
• identify and use tools to evaluate impact in the short, medium and longer term
• disseminate the outcomes widely through the transnational network of associated partners and through 5 multplier events in 5 countries
• build an online network of expertise to exchange practice through the online communities hosted on the Integrated Platform
Although the lingua franca will be English, the platform and the training programme will also be developed in French, German, Polish and Greek.
The initial impact will be a demonstration of improved training provision for vocational learners and informal carers in the field of dementia care, but ultimately an improved treatment of dementia sufferers through reminiscence and namely:
• Improvement in cognition, mood, and functional ability.
• Reduction in the symptoms of depression.
• Reduction in the strain experienced by carers and relatives
