The progress in the D-Care project in the last virtual meeting
The project will deliver training to caregivers in CST, Cognitive Stimulation Therapy. This is an evidence-based methodology, proven to help people who have mild to medium dementia, developed by the University of Central London (UCL) and now utilised by many countries. Other interventions aid people with dementia, but this project is different in that it will deliver knowledge and skills to the family and friends of people suffering from dementia, as well as professional carers.
Recently, the team held the third online meeting; all partners were able to attend and contribute to the important discussions around progress and planning the next steps. The Coronavirus pandemic has affected work plans, but the team are trying to keep to the project plan and timescale as much as possible.
AGE UK presented the final presentation of the questionnaires and reports sent by the partners.
Work has continued on the “Train the Trainers” courses (IO3) and it is now ready for translation from English to all partner languages (Danish, Greek, Italian and Spain). Cognitive skills are the skills the brain uses to think, learn, remember, problem solve and communicate. There are a number of approaches (interventions) to help people with dementia improve their memory and thinking skills and to cope with memory loss, one of these is Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST).
CST has been developed by reviewing the best available research on approaches to improve cognitive skills for people with dementia.
Cognitive Stimulation Therapy involves 14 sessions of structured 45 minutes (minimum) group therapy sessions.
The sessions run over 7 weeks and each one covers a different topic. To make sure that there is continuity between the sessions they include some activities which are the same, such as the warm-up activity, a song and a ‘reality orientation board’ which has information on the group, details including date, time, place, weather.
The course is available online and once translated, will be made available to organisations other than project partners, as it is recognised how useful this could be for caregivers, both professional and non-professional. Teacher Guide will be created which will add to the ease of use for this course.
For more info: www.dcare.training/courses/
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