Supporting the development of Dementia Champions in different care pathway settings

Title: Supporting the development of Dementia Champions in different care pathway settings
Background: Dementia Champions (DCs) are seen as playing a key role in the transfer and dissemination of knowledge within and across agencies and organisations involved in caring for people living with dementia.
Aim: To establish a county-wide group that has a shared identity and sufficient critical mass to identify dementia training and development needs for the health and social care workforce.
Methods: The University of Hertfordshire established a Dementia-Champion Community-of-Practice Project (DEMCoP) which networked with dementia leads, DCs, practitioners, and educators in various NHS Trusts via an on-line platform, meetings, discussions and study days.
Findings: The role of DC is understood in many different ways not only by the individuals holding it, but also by the organisations they work for. Professionals designated as DCs range from consultants to health care assistants. We found limited evidence of identification and coherence of DCs as a group or a ‘community of practice’, or willingness to engage with online fora. The CoP approach showed potential when there was a salaried co-ordinator or senior clinician to bring DCs together and share good practice. The DEMCoP Project built on this by establishing links within and across organisations, including regional bodies. The second phase focuses on dementia education and training to inform how the training of DCs and others is commissioned in the future.
Conclusion: The DC movement needs an infrastructure around which to cohere not only to raise the profile of the DC role, but also to influence and develop services. If initiatives to harness a newly emerging professional group such as DCs are to be successful in their aim to transfer and disseminate knowledge across organisations involved in dementia care, they need to be strategically placed within existing networks that can bring together service providers, educators and commissioners.