South West Dementia Partnership

Launching a major event by getting everyone on their feet for a rousing song or two may sound more football than NHS, but that was precisely how the highly-successful South West Dementia Partnership Summit 2010 began at Taunton Racecourse in April.

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Robert Hurst bravely led from the front as more than 100 delegates from health and social care and from the voluntary sector were invited to try ‘singing for the brain’, as developed by the Alzheimer’s Society to help people live well with dementia.

The summit was chaired by Professor Jane Gilliard, National Dementia Strategy Programme Manager for Implementation.

Sir Ian Carruthers, OBE, Chief Executive of the South West Strategic Health Authority and a member of the National Dementia Implementation Board, set out the region’s commitment to improving dementia care ahead of the national strategy’s five-year timetable.

He said that success would mean a revolution in the way dementia care was provided by the public sector, in care homes and in people’s homes.

Sir Ian added that innovation meant sharing best practice and re-shaping systems around service users and carers. This would require passion, pace and drive.

As well as presentations and workshops, the summit included a ‘Dragons In The Summit Den’, with a specialist panel considering proposals from teams.

A detailed joint review of dementia services has already been carried out across the South West, revealing areas of excellence but also inconsistencies. Action plans have been drawn up by each Primary Care Trust and local authority.

Clinical champions for dementia have been identified in hospitals across the South West, and there has been scrutiny of all NHS organisations’ dementia services as part of their operating plans. The regional clinical lead for dementia care in general hospitals is Alison Moon alison.moon@ubht.nhs.uk.

Speakers presentations

• Sir Ian Carruthers OBE, Chief Executive, South West Strategic Health Authority
  Our commitment: improving dementia care in the South West
  (MS PowerPoint 236 KB)
• Sally Slade, Managing Director, Health and Social Care Delivery, Devon, and Jenny Richards, Joint Strategic Commissioning manager, OPMH, Devon
  Challenges for partnerships: making it work for people with dementia
  (MS PowerPoint 228 KB)
• Helen Bown, Joint Commissioning Manager NHS Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire County Council
  Memory Services: Improving Access
  (MS PowerPoint 2.3 MB)
• Dr Fiona Boyd, Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust and Beverley Chapman, CIOSPCT
  Liaison services in general hospitals
  (MS PowerPoint MB)
• Fiona Henderson
  Newquay Dementia Pilot
  (MS PowerPoint 1.1 MB)
• Dr Marian Naidoo, Visiting Research Fellow, Naidoo & Associates
  Arts in Dementia – working creatively with people with dementia
  (MS PowerPoint 1.5 MB)

Workshop presentations

• Dr Marian Naidoo, Visiting Research Fellow, Naidoo & Associates
  Culture & Art, Social Transformation & Enquiry (CASTE)
  (MS PowerPoint 284 KB)
• Rosie Derrick, Business Development Manager, Eisai Limited, and Mike Stedman, Director, Res Consortium
  Dementia Commissioning Toolkit
  (MS PowerPoint 3.3 MB)
• David Pennington, Policy Lead, Department of Health South West
  The Mental Capacity Actand Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
  (MS PowerPoint 180 KB)