‘DemChamp’: Developing the role of Dementia Champions in homecare

Dr Tiffeny James, King’s College London

This talk will provide an overview of the ‘DemChamp’ study, funded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research. Using a Theory of Change approach, we have explored the role of Dementia Champions across health and social care settings, with the aim of identifying the key components of the Dementia Champion role to develop a model specific to the homecare sector. We will present emerging findings from a narrative review, job description analysis, and qualitative interviews that have enabled us to understand how the Dementia Champion role is implemented and maintained across national and international settings. Next steps of the study will be discussed, including a co-production workshop using science illustration. Study webpage.

Supporting continence care for people living at home with dementia: the DemCon project

Dr Cathy Murphy & Dr Barbara Bradbury, University of Southampton; and Dr Helen Chester, King’s College London

This presentation will focus on initial findings from the DemCon study which is being funded by the NIHR Three Schools’ Dementia Research Programme. The aim of DemCon is to develop and test an intervention to help healthcare professionals to deliver continence support to people with dementia at home, their carers and home care workers.

This presentation will report initial findings from work undertaken as part of phases 1 and 2 of the study which included a rapid review of the literature and interviews with healthcare professionals and homecare workers. It will also outline our plans for a related project, emerging from this initial work, which will develop continence-related resources for use by homecare workers in discussions with those they care for, about how best to support them in managing continence. Study webpage.