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Abstract
Background An increasing number of the population are living with dementia; it is the leading cause of death in the UK. Training is required to enable the workforce to support these individuals. Skills for Care commissioned ECHO training to meet Tier 2 standards of the Dementia Training Standards Framework.
Aim To deliver an education programme via ECHO across the four ‘Places’ of South Yorkshire, ensuring equitable access for the adult social care workforce.
Method Project ECHO has been utilised across the world to develop communities of practice in remote areas. Utilising ECHO Methodology, a 5-session programme was designed to meet the Tier 2 objectives. Subject matter experts were recruited to deliver the individual sessions and the programme ran 5 times (25 sessions in total) from September 2023 to March 2024 at different times and days to optimise workforce access. The facilitation of the sessions was split between St Luke’s Hospice and Rotherham, Doncaster & Bassetlaw ECHO hub.
The five sessions were as follows:
Dementia identification, assessment, diagnosis and risk management.
Person–centred dementia care and the importance of families and carers.
Communication, interaction and behaviour in dementia care.
Living well, including promoting health, independence and well–being in dementia care.
Equality, diversity and inclusion in dementia care–sexuality/learning disabilities/cultural diversity.
Pre and post programme self-efficacy confidence and knowledge evaluation questionnaires were completed to measure learning.
Results A total of 329 individuals signed up with 712 individual attendances across the 5 programmes. Feedback was very positive with overall confidence improving from 63.12% to 91.04% when supporting someone living with dementia.
Conclusion Project ECHO represents a highly accessible education intervention for large numbers of delegates in multiple locations. Survey findings support the successful application of this model to the Dementia Awareness training syllabus for the Adult Social Care workforce.