Dementia Pathfinders Community Interest Company delivers education, training, care and support for people living with dementia, family carers and health & social care providers..
Dementia Pathfinders offers training for health and social care professionals. Dementia Pathfinders works with a range of provider organisations from the statutory, private, independent and voluntary sectors and specialises in 'whole systems' approaches that combine direct teaching and training with reflective practice, mentoring and management support, with the aim of embedding learning into practice and improving the quality of care delivered in the care setting. Dementia Pathfinders aims to give a voice to people with dementia, and friends and family members who support them, keeping these people at the heart of everything we do. People with dementia and family carers inform and shape the content and delivery of our training, and are involved in training delivery as 'experts by experience'.
Dementia Pathfinders is working in local areas with partner organisations, providing support, information and care for people with dementia and their carers.
(i) The imperative to build capacity in order to maximise the opportunities to expand servcies and develop new approaches.
(ii) The current financial climate in health and social care is restricting growth.
Dementia Pathfinders hosts the Dementia Roadmap www.dementiaroadmap.net on behalf of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Dementia Pathfinders co-ordinates a core team of knowledge specialists to maintain and develop the national resource base of the Dementia Roadmap. The team supports the existing Dementia Roadmap customers and is proactively seeking to engage local Dementia Roadmap subscribers.
Dementia Pathfinders was successful in securing a grant from the Big Lottery 'Reaching Communities' Fund, in collaboration with Agewell CIC in the West Midlands, for 'Kingfisher Buddies' project. the aim of the project is to provide information, education and support for people new diagnoses with dementia and their family carers and to offer meaningful and stimulating activities, on a one-to-one basis and in groups, in communities in Sandwell Metropolitan Borough in the West Midlands. Two Community Pathfinders have been appointed to carry out frontline support for people living with dementia. The Kingfisher Buddies project operates an open referral system: people can self-refer and referrals are also accepted from third party organisations. Training and education is a key part of the project: information and education sessions have been provided to family carers and social care support workers from a number of local agencies, and the Level 3 Award in Awareness of Dementia (accredited by the Open College Network London Region) has been delivered to a cohort of learners with a view to establishing a team of dementia trainers and facilitators, as a means of sustaining services provided by Agewell and Dementia Pathfinders in the region.
Dementia Pathfinders aims to develop innovative ways to support people to live well with dementia in the community, in care homes. Dementia Pathfinders aims to deliver and evaluate therapeutic approaches both for people with dementia and their carers. We aim to use evidence-based practice to promote and support the development and dissemination of these approaches.
Dementia Pathfinders is setting up a 'Music and Dementia' group for people with young onset dementia.
To offer 'Dementia Conversations' in partnership with local church communities, to encourage dialogue about the issues that face people living with dementia and spread awareness. Currently offered in the Isle fo Wight and in Altrincham.
This project started in East Cowes, Isle of Wight in the Autumn of 2015. 'Dementia Conversations' sessions are held on a monthly basis at st Jemes' Church, East Cowes.
A new 'Dementia Converstions' initaitive at Bowden Vale Methodist Church was started in Spring 2016 and follows a similar model.