Dementia Promoting Excellence at Cramond

At our Edinburgh care home, we are committed to on-going dementia care training with our staff, particularly in how to care and interact with people living with dementia.

However, we also want to share our learning with families, friends and other residents who wish to have a better understanding of older age and how dementia may affect friends and relatives.

Throughout July, we are running ‘Dementia Promoting Excellence’ training to equip our staff to continue to support our residents to live well with dementia. These sessions will also be offered to relatives.

Dementia is a broad term, which describes different conditions that affect brain function, including Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia. According to Alzheimer Scotland, there are 90,000 people in Scotland currently living with dementia.

The Scottish Government introduced Scotland’s National Dementia Strategy in June 2010. Since then, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) have developed the ‘Promoting Excellence’ framework for people working with dementia.

Ross Bijak, our Charge Nurse will run the ‘Dementia Promoting Excellence’ sessions this summer at Cramond Residence.

Ross said: “I have been facilitating this training now for many years, and I am delighted to bring this to Cramond Residence. It is Cramond’s view that every employee should have a good understanding of dementia, as we will be supporting people to live well with the condition during the time they spend with us.

“As well as following the training guidance, the sessions offer the opportunity for all of us to discuss our personal experiences with each other, so that we can understand dementia better and can reflect on and empathise more with people living their life with the condition”.

The workshops will run for one day between 9am – 4pm, on the following dates:

• Tuesday 9 July
• Tuesday 16 July
• Thursday 18 July
• Friday 2 August – please note change of date 

If you would like to find out more about these sessions at our care home, please call our reception team on 0131 336 1064. You can also visit our website.