Anna Jack-Waugh

Providing education and support to family carers of people with dementia is advocated in dementia policies across the globe. Family carers of people with dementia receive variable support and often little education to enable them to sustain family caring. An international review of dementia education standards found family carer education to be absent. Although several types of educational interventions have been piloted, few are coproduced with family carers or encompass skills‐based education to support them with the complex and progressive changes that dementia brings. This study took a multimethod approach following a three‐phase coproduction framework, with family carers codesigning the evaluation. The aims were to assess whether the Carers’ Academy, a skills‐based education programme delivered by a university, NHS and third sector partnership, improved carer wellbeing. It also measured the extent to which carers felt they had increased their dementia knowledge and developed practical care skills. Family carers participating in the Carers’ Academy were invited to complete Part B of the psychometrically validated carer wellbeing and support (CWS) scale pre‐ and 6 weeks postprogramme participation and a codesigned questionnaire immediately after participation. The Carers’ Academy is a unique intervention, and findings demonstrated it made a statistically significant impact on family carers perceptions of wellbeing and an improvement in their dementia knowledge and care skills. This paper describes the methodological process of involving family carers of people with dementia in a process of cooperative enquiry to codesign an evaluation. By doing so it contributes to the scare literature documenting the involvement of family carers of people with dementia in research and evaluation. Family carers need tailored, effective dementia education and, as experts by experience, should be supported to have their voices heard not only as participants in research but also as coresearchers.

Background/Objectives: The importance of family carer dementia education is highlighted in research, practice guidance, and policy. Less attention is paid to how facilitators learn and prepare for their role. This research aimed to explore and describe facilitator learning experiences within a bespoke Scottish Carers’ Academy designed around a theory-guided approach called Care Empathia. A healthcare and university partnership ensured integration with services and the fusion of dementia higher education know-how with clinical practice expertise. Methods: Nineteen facilitator questionnaires were completed from two Carer Academy hubs; thirteen participated in online focus groups. Results: The questionnaire findings highlighted the learning gained from being a facilitator, observing expert facilitators in action, and listening to the testimonies of family carers. The framework analysis of the focus group data identified six themes, including safe learning approaches, the art of facilitation, emotional work, team learning, and leadership. These findings highlight the importance of facilitator preparation and the advantages of co-delivery models that combine clinical and practice education expertise. Conclusion: Facilitators need to understand how to walk the talk of theory-guided educational models, be open to reciprocity in learning, and be prepared for the emotional work of delivering trauma-informed practical dementia care education to family carers.

In recognition of the often poor experience of people living with dementia in general hospitals and the lack of dementia curricular content for health and social care professionals, the Scottish Government commissioned a dementia workforce development programme (Dementia Champions) for qualified health and social care professionals in 2011. This constructivist grounded theory study aimed to construct a theory of the learning experienced by the dementia champions before, during and after the programme. The reported experience of change in the champions' professional and personal perspectives about people with dementia was the focus of this study. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the long-term negative impact of knowledge and skills gaps in dementia education and on people living with dementia and health and social care professionals. This negative impact has implications for individual professionals, service leaders and health and social care systems internationally. Data was co-produced through intensive interviewing, a focus group and email interviewing with nineteen Dementia Champions. Construction of the theory emerged from direct engagement with the data using the constructivist grounded theory approach. The findings illuminate how, before the programme, professionals were educated, socialised and defined to fail people with dementia. On the programme, multiple learning interventions in which interacting with the lived experience of people living with dementia, their families and colleagues became the stimulators of change. These learning interventions stimulated a disrupted self-definition and actions to resolve this disruption. Once the self-definition was restored, the participants faced the complexity of working with people living with dementia with passion, pride and new thinking. These findings further illuminate the importance of expert facilitation and the inclusion of people with dementia and their families as peer educators in health and social care dementia education. Further research on the negative outcomes of gaps in initial professional education is important.

Diabetes and dementia may manifest simultaneously: one is potentially life threatening, the other causes severe, progressive loss of memory and cognitive function. Where they coexist, they present nurses with challenges such as administering life-saving interventions to patients who are unable to give informed consent. This article offers guidance on the clinical and ethical challenges involved in blood glucose monitoring and medicines administration in patients with dementia.