A New Dementia Strategy for Scotland - Literature Review
The University of Stirling is proud to have been commissioned by the Scottish Government to conduct a review of current dementia research for the purposes of informing the development of the new Dementia Strategy for Scotland.
The review study explored nine key research questions as follows:
1. How are people living with dementia and unpaid carers interacting with services or supports in the community?
2. What supports and empowers people to live a good life with a dementia diagnosis?
3. What are the health inequalities aspects and to what extent is the support offer responding to what the research tells us? Are there specific equalities aspects we could understand better? Do we do enough to tailor support for people with protected characteristics?
4. What other models or types of support exist that people living with dementia might access? What is working well and why?
5. What does the literature and research say on prevention? Is there practice working well and why?
6. What are the experiences of people living with dementia and unpaid carers interacting with NHS community, specialist and hospital-based services?
7. What supports people to remain living at home and connected to their communities?
8. How are people living with dementia being supported in care homes and what are their experiences?
9. How do we tackle stigma / tell a different story for people living with dementia and unpaid carers?
As part of the Scottish Government’s overarching Dementia Review, which will inform the development of the new Dementia Strategy for Scotland, this report presents a rapid umbrella review of literature reviews published since 1 January 2017. The literature review addresses the nine questions above, chosen as a result of several stakeholder consultations and in conjunction with our partners at the Scottish Government.
The review provides a range of key findings, which can be found below:
Requirement to improve the understanding of dementia among the general public and challenge the stigma around dementia.
Stigma at organisational levels continues to impact on negative experiences for people living with dementia.
Organisations which provide care need staff training and education to improve care for people with dementia.
Opportunities for organisations to work together to provide multidisciplinary approaches to support
A need to promote working cultures that recognise and support personhood and take the person with dementia’s wishes into decision making.
Significance of understanding each individual with dementia and how personal characteristics and experiences can impact on a person with dementia’s journey and the support they may require.
Importance of involving people with dementia in the decision making on issues impacting their own care.
Relationships are central to people’s experiences of care and support in addition to their ability to live well with dementia.
Innovation has an important role to play in the delivery of dementia care.
To read the findings in their entirety, download a copy of the Literature Review here. Alternatively, an executive summary is also available to read here.
