Care Home Neglect

Community Care has found that staff working in residential and nursing homes are not being provided with the training they need to support adults with complex needs, particularly dementia. It was found that even specialist dementia homes are failing to provide training on the topic to their staff. Safeguarding, the Mental Capacity Act and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards were the other most common gaps.

A recent example took place at the Old Deanery care home in Essex, where an undercover BBC reporter documented an elderly woman with dementia being slapped and goaded by community support workers. The three workers who were under investigation for this have been imprisoned for four months.

In addition, below is an excerpt from an inspection report of an incident which took place in a care home in Blackpool labelled as ‘inadequate’:

“Staff had only received basic dementia awareness training which did not fully meet the needs of the people living with dementia. When we discussed dementia care with staff, we could not identify any recognition that people living with dementia required specialist care. Management and staff were not equipped when we inspected to provide for the complex needs of people with dementia.”

The Care Quality Commission’s chief inspector for social care said it was worrying that gaps existed in areas that are fundamental to the protection of vulnerable people’s rights. See below a chart by the CQC demonstrating the number of homes with training gaps, based on inspection rating:

What action has been taken?

In October 2015, Skills for Health launched the Dementia Core Skills Education and Training framework. It will allow organisations to align their dementia training to the framework. It covers the following subjects:

1. Dementia awareness
2. Dementia identification, assessment and diagnosis
3. Dementia risk reduction and prevention
4. Person-centred dementia care
5. Communication, interaction and behaviour in dementia care
6. Health and well-being in dementia care
7. Pharmacological interventions in dementia care
8. Living well with dementia and promoting independence
9. Families and carers as partners in dementia care
10. Equality diversity and inclusion in dementia care
11. Law, ethics and safeguarding in dementia care
12. End of life dementia care
13. Research and evidence-based practice in dementia care
14. Leadership in transforming dementia care

Please click on the link below to view the full Dementia Core Skills Education and Training framework: