eLearning: The Open Dementia Programme

Published: 2009

The Open Dementia elearning Programme is aimed at anyone who comes into contact with someone with dementia and provides a general introduction to the disease and the experience of living with dementia. This programme is designed to be accessible to a wide audience and to make learning as enjoyable as possible and so allows users to fully interact with the content and includes video, audio and graphics to make the content come alive. In particular the programme includes a considerable amount of new video footage shot by both the Alzheimer’s Society and SCIE where people with dementia and their carers share their views and feelings on camera.

	What it is and what it isn't Covers: Views of dementia in the media; Facts and common misconceptions about dementia; Common symptoms, clinical terminology and causes of symptoms. View elearning resource View text-only version View printable version Learning record
	Living with dementia Covers: The person with dementia as a unique individual; The importance of knowing their background and life history; Abilities people with a dementia retain in spite of the difficulties they face; How dementia impacts on families, friends and community and the support that is needed. View elearning resource View text-only version View printable version Learning record
	What causes dementia Covers: The different types of dementia and the key characteristics of each; The different areas of the brain and how dementia affects these areas; Factors that are known to increase or lessen the risk of dementia. View elearning resource View text-only version View printable version Learning record
	Diagnosis and who can help Covers: The process of diagnosis and its impact; Help and support available, key professional roles and skills and multidisciplinary support services; Anti-dementia drugs and non-pharmacological treatments. View elearning resource View text-only version View printable version Learning record
	Common difficulties and how to help Covers: How dementia affects each individual differently; Four common areas of difficulty faced by people with dementia; Practical strategies to assist with difficulties; Difficulties faced by people with dementia not caused by damage to the brain, but by other factors. View elearning resource View text-only version View printable version Learning record
	The emotional impact of dementia Covers: The emotional dimension of dementia; The importance of effective strategies to help people experiencing difficult emotions; Explore a range of situations where we can have a major impact on a person with dementia through our actions. View elearning resource View text-only version View printable version Learning record
	Positive communication Covers: Helping a person with dementia understand our message; Helping a person with dementia make themselves understood; Communicating with people experiencing a different reality; The importance of non-verbal communication. View elearning resource View text-only version View printable version Learning record

• Who they are suitable forOpen

  The programme will therefore be suitable for care home staff (carers, administrative and managerial staff), domiciliary care workers, registered general, mental and district nurses, general and acute hospital staff, allied health care professionals, social workers, ambulance service staff, community support workers (meals on wheels, transport services) and family carers.

• About the authorsOpen

  Buz Loveday

  Buz Loveday is the lead trainer of Dementia Trainers (www.dementiatrainers.co.uk). With a background in statutory and voluntary sector social care provision, Buz has been a full-time dementia trainer since 1991.  From '05 to '07 she delivered a nationwide programme of training on dementia to Inspectors from CSCI.  She provides dementia training for a number of London boroughs, as well as a large number of private and voluntary sector organisations.  Buz runs the Dementia Care Trainers' Programme, an accredited course for new dementia trainers.  She and her team also deliver other accredited dementia training through their approved Open College Network learning centre.

  Buz is co-author, with Tom Kitwood, of the training manual 'Improving Dementia Care: A Resource for Training and Professional Development' published by the Journal of Dementia Care.  She is currently co-writing the new Alzheimer's Society training pack.  Buz is a qualified 'Dementia Care Mapping' evaluator, NVQ assessor  and person-centred counsellor, and all the team members are Alzheimer's Society Approved Trainers.

  The mission of Dementia Trainers is to raise awareness and understanding, to improve skills, to increase insight into the needs of people with dementia, and to promote a positive, person-centred approach towards their care.

  Damian Murphy

  Having lived in community with young people with learning disabilities in Latin America and after an intense experience of being a full time carer, Damian then spent the next 8 years in the field of learning disability nursing before an interest in older people with learning disabilities led him to move into the field of dementia care. Damian spent two years as an independent advocate for people with dementia in an acute hospital setting before joining the Alzheimer’s Society in 2003. He has spent the last 5 years in the Louth branch in Lincolnshire, developing branch support services and coordinating a home respite service.  He completed a dementia studies degree with the Bradford Dementia Group and was also given a CSIP positive practice award for his exploratory relationship-centred work with couples. As a training project manager with the Quality Care Team he is currently leading on the Dementia Champions™ project.

• AcknowledgementsOpen

  SCIE would like to thank the following organisations and people:

  • The Alzheimer’s Society for kindly giving SCIE permission to use footage from their two video publications ‘In their own words’ and ‘Tomorrow is another day’ To obtain further information about these DVDs, please visit: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk
  • Guild Care and Linfield Care Home who feature on three of the video clips taken from ‘Tomorrow is another day’.
  • Our peer reviewers: Trevor Adams (University of Surrey), Gwen Coleman (Alzheimer’s Society), Pat Virji (Jewish care) and Simon Burrow (Trent Dementia Services Development Centre)
  • Everyone who took part in our user trials (Jackie Derrick, Hazel Relph, Julie Watts, Elizabeth Riordan, Hope Ogida, Janet Baylis, Claudine Davies, Christine Edgington, Sharon Cruz, Denise Raper, Matthew Martin).

• Technical developmentOpen

  Programming and graphic design by Cimex Ltd.

• SCORM Compliant versionOpen

  If you are a member of staff from a Higher Education institution who would like to download the activity for use in a virtual learning environment (VLE),such as WebCT, Blackboard or Moodle you should use the SCORM compliant version above.

  Please note that this resource was not designed to export any scores or track progress throughout the resource. Therefore, this resource can be imported into a virtual learning environment and freely accessed by users, but there will be no tracking or grading functionality.

• AccessibilityOpen

  This elearning resource has been designed to be accessible to the widest audience possible and reviewed for compliance to accessibility standards by the Digital Media Access Group at the University of Dundee. This page lists some of the features used to make the resources easier to use. If you are experiencing problems using the resources, or have any questions and comments about their accessibility, please let us know.

  Using the resources without a mouse

  All materials have been designed to be accessible using the keyboard. Use the Tab key to access navigational elements such as buttons and interactive diagrams. Pop-up windows with scroll bars can be accessed with the tab key, with the scroll-bar being operable via the up and down arrow keys.

  Changing the appearance of the resources

  If you need to adjust the way the resources appear, a Text Only version has been provided for each resource, allowing you to make changes to the resource's appearance through your browser. For example, you can use your browser to make the text larger, or change the font or colour of the text to suit your personal preferences. For more help on how to do this, visit the BBC's My Web My Way website

  Accessing the resources with a screen reader

  All resources have a narration of the main text. However if you use a screen reader, we recommend using the Text Only version for each resource. These provide broadly the same information and experience as the Flash version, but currently the nature of some features of the Flash resources mean that these features do not work as required in a screen reader

• CopyrightOpen

  All material in these elearning resources, including text, graphics, photographs, video and audio is copyright of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), with the exception of the video excerpts taken from the videos 'Tomorrow is another day' and 'In their own words', for which copyright belongs to the Alzheimer's Society. Use if these resources for educational purposes is freely permitted, but commercial use of these resources or any modification to the resources is not permitted without prior authorisation by both the Alzheimer's Society and SCIE.

• Images and audioOpen

  The majority of the images and voices used in this resource are those of actors.  This approach has been adopted to protect the identities of the service users and carers whose accounts have been drawn upon or the accounts have been based on situations indicative of the events or issues being covered.

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