1. The Wales Dementia Care Training Initiative
Project leads: Professor Bob Woods
Dr Christina Maciejewski
North Wales Trainer: Joan Woods
South Wales Trainer: Debbie Linnard

2. National Dementia Vision for Wales (2011)
Work started in 2008, to prepare a National Dementia Action Plan for Wales.
4 Action Plans published 2010:
1. Develop better joint working across health, social care, the third sector and other agencies;
2. Improve early diagnosis and timely interventions;
3. Provide better information and support for people with the illness and their carers/families;
4. Offer additional training for those delivering care.
Focus now on ‘on operational delivery and genuine meaningful service improvements’.
Implementation directed by Dementia Sub Group of Mental Health Programme Board.
“Our long term vision is to create ‘Dementia Supportive Communities’. To do this requires a change in attitudes and behaviours towards dementia at all levels of society, which reflect the challenge of demographic change and the impact of dementia.”

3. Ministerial Letter Sept 2010
Announced £1.5m funding for:
Increased clinical capacity within Older Peoples Mental Health Teams
LHBs submitted proposals for new Dementia Care Advisor posts
Development of new Young Onset dementia community services
LHBs submitted proposals
Wales Dementia Helpline
New bilingual helpline available 24/7
The Minister also called on UHBs to publish their plans for developing Crisis and Out of Hours community services.

4. Ministerial Letter Dec 2010
Announced:
UHB Proposals for posts approved
New Dementia Book Service launched
- 4 books added to prescription service
Alzheimer’s Society campaign and information packs launch
Funding for The Wales Training Initiative commissioned from DSDC Wales
– 2 Training Officers in post
Ministerial Letter Dec 2010

5. The Wales Dementia Care Training Initiative has been funded by the Welsh Assembly Government in response to the work undertaken (from ) developing National Dementia Action Plans for Wales.
The funding is available only until 31st March 2012, and is unlikely to be repeated!

6. The aim of the initiative:
To increase training capacity and expertise in Wales
To provide sustainable improvements in attitudes, skills and knowledge of those providing support and care to the growing number of people with dementia

7. The initiative plans to:
Carry out a scoping study of available resources, and establish and maintain a web-based database of these resources
Identify gaps in available resources and courses, and carry out any necessary development work

8. Invest in programmes which ‘train the trainers’, including development of a two day accredited module entitled ‘Understanding How to Deliver Dementia Care Training in Wales’

9. Enhance the sustainability by identifying, training and supporting dementia champions in dementia care facilities throughout Wales
Establish networks of trainers and champions which will continue beyond the current funding period

10. The target groups for the training and development work are currently identified as:
Staff in care homes
Staff working with people with dementia and their families in the community including telecare staff
Staff working with people with dementia in mental health service settings

11. Primary care staff, including general practitioners
Staff encountering people with dementia in general hospital context
Family care-givers
Continuing health-care assessors and their teams

12. Dementia Care Training for Staff in Care Homes and Domiciliary Workers
Advice on training strategy and training resources.

13. A range of bespoke training days and briefer training sessions, delivered by DSDC Training Officers and Associate Trainers. These can be designed to cover topics such as awareness and understanding of dementia; relationship between dementia and delirium; communication with people with dementia; recognising and responding to the needs of people with dementia; etc.

14. Staying Home Alone
Training course specially developed for community care staff
To be accredited with Agored Cymru

15. Champions
On-going support for a network of ‘champions’ – staff working in care homes and domiciliary settings who have a particular role in highlighting the needs of people with dementia in their care setting, and who have undergone specific training in care of people with dementia.

16. Train the Dementia Care Trainer
An accredited 2-day ‘train the trainer’ course to equip staff who have appropriate prior knowledge and experience to train others in dementia care. This will run in a number of locations across Wales from September 2011 to March 2012.