Developing dementia friendly practice

Following these steps will help to develop a dementia friendly general practice:

1. Arrange a Dementia Friends session for all staff. The session is provided face to face or virtually by Alzheimer Scotland, free of charge, and lasts for approximately one hour. As a result of the session, each person becomes a Dementia Friend. The session applies learning about dementia directly to general practice, with discussion of real life case studies of patients, and also introduces the checklist.
2. Use the checklist to identify changes that can be made within your practice to better support people with dementia. Start by reading the tips section for guidance on using the checklist including how it can be used flexibly.
3. Provide staff with information on the range of free resources available from Alzheimer Scotland. These include: Worried About your Memory?, Coping with Dementia and Living Well with Dementia which can be found at www.alzscot.org/information-sheets. You can also call Alzheimer Scotland’s 24 hour Freephone Dementia Helpline for copies of these. These resources can be signposted on the practice’s web pages and copies can also be ordered.
4. Increase awareness of post-diagnostic support. Everyone in Scotland newly diagnosed with dementia is entitled to a minimum of one year’s post-diagnostic support.
5. Help staff understand other support available: such as social services and community mental health.