Innovative projects - people with dementia and their communitiesInnovations in Dementia believes people with dementia can have an active role to play in the communities in which they live: that includes people living in their own homes and those living in residential care. On this page: “Shared Lives”Shared Lives is a type of living arrangement that organises permanent or short stays in the home of a local family. The person is welcomed as a member of the family. The family is checked and approved, trained and monitored by a Shared Lives scheme. Shared Lives has traditionally been a service for people with learning disabilities. We think that Shared Lives could be a good arrangement for some people with dementia who need extra support. We are half way through a three-year project, funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to look at developing “Shared Lives” opportunities for people with dementia. The project is a joint project between Innovations in Dementia
and Shared Lives South West Shared Lives services aim to:
Shared Lives is perceived by people with dementia and their carers as a really positive alternative to more traditional types of care:
The project islooking at the best ways of developing and supporting this kind of arrangement. We will be training and mentoring Shared Lives schemes in different parts of the country. We will also be looking at what people with dementia think about Shared Lives arrangements. The project will produce a wealth of information that will hopefully mean that a Shared Lives dementia service could be a possibility in every area. We also know that there is a high incidence of dementia among people with Downs Syndrome, and will be pulling together peoples experiences around this as part of the project. Spreading the word The film features Pat and her husband Roger, who has dementia. Roger has regular breaks through Shared Lives South West with Kay, a Shared Lives carer who lives in the beautiful area of Dartmoor. The film shows how the service works for Pat, Roger and Kay and each of them explain what Shared Lives means to them. The film will be available to watch and purchase from the
Shared Lives website January 2012 Getting creativeAs part of the project we run “Good practice days” for Shared Lives schemes. There are approximately 150 Shared Lives schemes across the country. Some of the schemes are already working with people with dementia, whilst others are interested in developing their work. Our first good practice scheme was on “Dementia and learning disability”. Many people who currently use Shared Lives have a learning disability. As this group of people get older, they are statistically more likely to develop dementia, and at an earlier age. Dr Karen Dodd, an eminent psychologist, who has done a lot of work around the issues facing people with learning disabilities who develop dementia, was our guest speaker. Our next good practice day will look at how families who provide Shared Lives can use creative methods to help them to support a person with dementia. We are joining forces with an organisation called Ladder to the Moon (www.laddertothemoon.co.uk). Ladder to the Moon is a training and theatre charity, using staff coaching and interactive theatre to improve quality of life for older people living in care, particularly people with dementia. They use a technique called Relationship Theatre®. This uses professional actors and coaches, who work with care staff within the day-to-day life of the care home setting to enable people with dementia to get enjoyment out of whatever they are doing. Characters (played by professional actors) treat the care setting as if it was somewhere different (eg a Hollywood Studio) and everyone participates in whatever way they wish to in the dramatic world that is created by the characters. A professional coach works with staff across the setting to develop three key attitudes (confidence, awareness, and responsibility) and three key skills (communication, initiation, and improvisation), enabling them to create richer and more connected relationships with their residents, patients, or clients. We are keen to find out if any of these approaches can be adapted for use within a family environment. We also want to inspire people to think more creatively about how care for people with dementia can be provided. April 2011 Our HouseThe 'Our House' project aims to answer the following questions:
The project will run for two years in two care homes for people with dementia: Charnwood House in Coventry (run by Methodist Homes Association) and Lennox House in London (run by Care UK).
For more information about Care UK visit their website - www.careuk.com/dementia April 2011 The benefits of “having your say”Researchers at the University of Exeter have found that when care home residents are more involved in decisions, this improves their memory, attention and satisfaction with life. In a recent project, some residents were involved in redecorating a communal lounge. These residents reported improved wellbeing, and made more use of the communal space. Moreover the staff found the residents to be more engaged with their environment and the people around them, to be generally happier and to have better health. These patterns were observed one month after the move and remained four months later. We will be working with Charnwood House and Lennox House to see what kind of outcomes there are when residents with dementia have more of a say in what happens in the care home. Progress reportProject ambassadors for the Our House project organised a pamper day
for residents. A pamper session was about 45 minutes in length. Some people enjoyed a foot, hand or face massage, others had their nails painted or their feet soaked in bubbles. Some residents enjoyed all of these (including men!) What residents said about the pamper day
What staff said about the pamper day
November 2011 Circles of support for people with dementia When people develop dementia they often find their personal networks
of support get smaller. Families and friends may be reluctant to help,
frightened by the condition or unable to see how they could contribute. Circles of support is an established model of enabling older and disabled people to lead the lives they want to lead. This project is about seeing how it will work with people with dementia. The person with dementia will be in the driving seat of key decisions about their support. Circles of support build upon people’s natural networks in their local communities including family members, neighbours, friends and volunteers, as well as paid staff. The aim is to provide shared support to help people carry on living in their local communities. This project will work with local groups in four different areas to adapt and test the idea of circles of support for people living with dementia. Circles will be developed for 40 people living with dementia over three years. ‘Circles’ will improve awareness, understanding and confidence in enabling people to live well with dementia. The project is funded by the Department of Health’s Innovation,
Excellence and Service Development Fund and will be run by the National
Development Team for Inclusion. May 2011
The first advisory group for this project was held in Salisbury on 27 July 2011. The advisory group is made up of Rachael and Nada from Innovations in Dementia and staff from the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi), along with representatives from organisations who work in the four areas where the project will run: Devon, Dorset, Portsmouth and West London. But the most important people on the advisory group are people with dementia. The group talked about lots of things, including:
August 2011 Dementia capable communities For a long time we have been interested in what local communities do
or don’t do to support people with dementia to stay connected and
involved. We wanted to find out what makes a good community for people with dementia to live in, and what can be done to make this happen. Here is what people with dementia and their supporters told us: Things that make the most difference in a community are:
People said that things could be made better by:
Based on what people told us, we recommended that:
We reported our findings at a meeting on the 16 Feb hosted by the Department for Health – looking at dementia and the “Big Society” Download:
If you have trouble downloading thess files - please contact us as we can supply documents in different formats February 2011
Innovations in Dementia CIC, PO Box 616, Exeter, EX1
9JB Registered as a community interest company No. 06046815. © Innovations in dementia CIC 2008
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As
part of this project we have worked with Biggerhouse Film to make a short
film about the experiences of all the people involved in one Shared Lives
service. 
