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Summary of report content

In October 2013 Healthwatch Bradford and District identified a need to undertake a review into the standards of care provided in hospitals across Bradford District for people living with dementia and their carers. Healthwatch Bradford and District aimed to get a better picture of how carers’ needs were being met, to understand if the environment was suitable and to help identify solutions that would create a more positive experience. Healthwatch Bradford and District wanted to make it easy for people to contribute to the review so talked to carers at five different locations across Bradford, working with a community organisation called The Memory Club which offers social support to both carers and people living with dementia from across the district. The groups meet every two weeks in Keighley, Saltaire, Shipley and Idle. They also spoke to carers attending the Wellbeing Cafe at Grange Interlink Community Centre, which supports carers from a South Asian background. Some of the people spoken to were positive about the communication and support that they had received as a carer. However others gave accounts of poor communication and gave examples of how failing to involve the carer in planning and providing care had caused difficulties. Many carers said that they felt they were the experts on the patient’s care yet were not involved enough or listened to by staff. Whilst Healthwatch Bradford and District do not suggest that the person with dementia is excluded from conversations and consultations, they felt it was clear from conversations with carers it would be helpful to involve them too. It is also important to understand that the different stages of dementia will require a different level of communication. Observations made by carers in the report highlight the need to get better at involving carers with developments in research and share the rationale relating to changes to the physical environment. It also illustrates again the need for an increased awareness and training across the Trusts in dementia. Healthwatch Bradford and District plans to re-visit the experiences, voices and views of carers of people living with dementia in the future, once actions have been implemented, to see the impact of any changes.

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