A digital training program significantly improved the quality of life for people with dementia who lived in assisted living communities and nursing homes in the United Kingdom. As a result, there was a 20% reduction in use of psychotropic medications, the authors found in a report published Wednesday in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
The goal of the 16-week program was to train staff to deliver personalized care to residents.
Teams from the University of Exeter and King’s College London implemented the Improving the Wellbeing and Health for People Living with Dementia (iWHELD) program, which included a one-month orientation phase followed by a four-month off-site training phase. The program allocated one day per month for person-centered care (PCC) classroom-based sessions led by an iWHELD trainer that incorporated didactic learning, experiential activities and implementation planning. The other four months required regular on-site consultation sessions with each care home to support the program as it launched. Live coaching was delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers delivered the program to staff supporting 739 residents in 149 residential homes in the UK. The team compared those who used iWHELD to usual care. In addition to reducing use of sedatives, markers of quality of life were better in the intervention group.
“Urgent action is needed to ensure care homes have access to dementia care training and support that is both high quality and shown to be effective. Every person deserves thoughtful and compassionate care and not everyone is receiving it,” Joanne McDermid, creator of the iWHELD platform and lead author of the paper, said in a statement.
McDermid went on to say that iWHELD is the first program to provide an effective, evidence based, affordable and scalable solution that can address the care needs and improve the lives of the people with dementia.
“As part of the training around personalized care, we’ve realized we need to change our approaches and even our demeanors to communicate effectively with residents … so if someone is quite reserved, being very bubbly is less effective and relatable to that person,” Katie Ives, manager of a care home that participated in the iWHELD training, said in a statement. “We’ve always tailored our approach to residents, but now we offer a wider variety of activities and clubs to suit people’s interests in their lives, and we’re seeing some residents spend more time in communal areas and less time in their rooms as a result.”
