Dementia and nutrition
Adopt a Care Home (AaCH) and Dementia Awareness: a Sheffield pilot The prevalence of dementia increases with age. There are approximately 800,000 people currently living with dementia in the UK, with this figure set to double over the next 40 years (1). In 2010, the total number of people with dementia worldwide was estimated to be 35.6 million by the World Health Organisation (2). Andy Wallace Commissioning Officer for Quality, working in Adult Social Care for Sheffield City Council
As Commissioning Officer, Andy has to ensure that all care homes and other relevant services are up to date with all legislation linked to care. He developed the ‘Adopt a Care Home’ pilot, as he already had links with schools as a School Governor. Andy enjoys his garden and garage, tinkering about on a weekend and confesses to being an active healthy eater.
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This figure is projected to double every 20 years. The total number of new cases of dementia each year, worldwide, is nearly 7.7 million, implying one new case every four seconds (2). Although dementia mainly affects older people, it is not a normal part of ageing. Dementia is a syndrome, usually of a chronic or progressive nature, caused by a variety of brain illnesses that affect memory, thinking, behaviour and ability to perform everyday activities (2). In Sheffield, around 6,400 people aged 65 or over are living with some form of dementia. This number is expected to increase to 7,400 by 2020 and to 9,400 by 2030. The biggest increase is likely to be in the numbers of those aged over 85 and that almost a third of those with dementia currently live in care homes in the city, with others living in the community often supported by family carers. People with dementia are more likely to be admitted into long-term care after a hospital stay than returning to their own home. Sheffield Integrated Commissioning Plan for people with dementia and their carers designed for 2014/15 was to ensure the delivery of excellent health and wellbeing outcomes for people with dementia in Sheffield, maintaining value for money. Effective commissioning and partnership working with key stakeholders are enabling this plan to be achieved. Understanding dementia and its effects is an important part in under-
NHDmag.com April 2015 - Issue 103
standing, living with and coping with dementia. Schools can play a vital role in the development of dementiafriendly communities. By educating children and young people about dementia, a dementia-friendly generation can be created - a generation that is more aware of dementia and more supportive of people with dementia in the community where they live. And just as importantly, if not more so, by talking to children and young people about dementia, it can reassure them about their fears and misunderstandings and help them to relate to grandparents and other family members who may have dementia. The Sheffield Dementia Action Alliance oversees the establishment of Sheffield as a dementia-friendly city and provides information about the national work with schools - to establish a dementia aware generation. The Alzheimer Society believes that engaging young people is crucial to the development of dementia-friendly communities. The Society previously funded Dementia4Schools and now runs the project in house. Adopt a Care Home is a fantastic model, improving links between care homes and schools and improving inter-generational relationships. The Adopt a Care Home (AaCH) pilot intended to involve children in increasing the quality in care homes. It was planned to integrate stronger links with schools and care homes in a geographic area so that schools can ‘adopt’ a care home. The pilot pro-
