Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Educating and Training the Workforce to Work with People with Dementia: Two Projects from the United Kingdom

Mustafa, Nageen; Tsaroucha, Anna; Le Mesurier, Nick; Benbow, Susan Mary; Kingston, Paul

Authors

Anna Tsaroucha

Nick Le Mesurier

Susan Mary Benbow

Paul Kingston



Abstract

Educating and training the dementia workforce is a global challenge, given the expected increasing number of people living with dementia across the world as the population ages. Two projects from the UK (one regionally and one locality based) investigated courses available to the workforce and mapped the content of identified courses against a locally developed dementia care pathway. The locality project included a survey of what percentage of staff time was spent with people living with dementia, and what percentage of staff caseloads were devoted to people living with dementia. There was a great variation in the extent of education and training available, with some stages of the dementia care pathway poorly addressed. An educational strategy for the dementia workforce in the UK might include four categories of education and training: basic dementia awareness, intermediate level, advanced level, and dementia awareness for managers. Staff requiring education and training might be divided into three groups: those employed to work specifically with people living with dementia and their families; those working with people who have other conditions but some of whom will have a coincidental dementia; those working with other conditions but in settings where a high proportion of their patients have a comorbid dementia. To improve workforce skills in dementia care will require actions across the whole of education and training for professionals and untrained workers who provide services to this group.

Citation

Mustafa, N., Tsaroucha, A., Le Mesurier, N., Benbow, S. M., & Kingston, P. (2013). Educating and Training the Workforce to Work with People with Dementia: Two Projects from the United Kingdom. Educational Gerontology, 39(6), 398-412. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2012.701102

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Apr 8, 2013
Publication Date Jun 1, 2013
Deposit Date Jun 5, 2023
Journal EDUCATIONAL GERONTOLOGY
Print ISSN 0360-1277
Publisher Routledge
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 39
Issue 6
Pages 398-412
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2012.701102