Dementia palliative care service shortlisted for award
A specialist service providing support for people with dementia towards the end of their lives has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award. Housing 21’s Dementia Voice Nurse service has been named as a finalist in the dementia care category of the Care Integration Awards.
Housing 21’s entry beat off fierce competition to reach the final, with the awards seeing the highest level of entries in their history.
The Dementia Voice Nurse service was introduced to fill an important gap in the support of people with dementia and their families/carers. It is widely recognised that palliative care for this group is often inadequate. The Dementia Voice Nurse aims to address this by working alongside the person with dementia and collaborating with allied professionals to ensure the person receives appropriate and joined up care. With experience in both dementia and palliative care, the Dementia Voice Nurse is able to improve the quality of end of life and the end of life choices for people with dementia.
Abigail Bartlett, Dementia Voice Nurse for Housing 21 said: “We’re all delighted that this very important service has been shortlisted. We know from the feedback we receive that the Dementia Voice Nurse service is addressing very important gaps and delivering significant improvements in terms of wellbeing and quality of care.”
An evaluation of the first two years of the service estimated cost savings of more than £314K in terms of avoided hospital, residential and nursing home admissions and ambulance services. In addition the service has also improved individuals’ pain management, allowed service users to remain in their own homes for longer than they would otherwise have done and allowed them to die in their preferred place.
Housing 21’s Dementia Voice Nurse service began in 2009 in Westminster, London. The huge success of the service has seen it extended to cover Lancashire and Bristol.
The finals of the Care Integration Awards will take place on 9 July at Grosvenor House in Park Lane, London.
For further media information, please contact Wendy Gornicki, PR & Information Officer, Housing 21 on 0370 192 4338 or email wendy.gornicki@housing21.co.uk
Housing 21’s mission is to promote independence and choice for older people through quality care, health and housing services. It provides around 130,000 hours of care each week and manages around 19,000 sheltered and extra care apartments, providing services to more than 31,000 service users.
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