Training programmes

This article presents results from a conceptual validation of the programme ‘Living Together with Dementia’, through an e-Delphi study carried out during April/May, 2015 with 26 Portuguese and Spanish experts. The programme consists of seven individual weekly sessions and two group sessions over a seven-week period. It covers dementia, communication and behaviour; demands and expectations of the caregiver role; basic activities of daily living; coping and problem solving strategies; physical and mental health of the caregiver and community support.

The aim of this article was to present the preliminary results of a training programme for family caregivers of people with dementia at an early to moderate stage living at home - 'Living Together With Dementia'. In this randomised controlled trial, 27 family caregivers who met the inclusion criteria were recruited from the neurology outpatient consultation clinic of a hospital in the north of Portugal and randomised into two groups (control and experimental) between October 2015 and March 2016.

This paper describes the increased national focus on including families and carers in all aspects of mainstream mental health services. It proposes that the specific recommendations included in the National Service Framework for Mental Health be brought together in the form of a strategy to enhance working partnerships with families and carers. It advocates that the implementation of the NSF requires a comprehensive awareness and basic skills training in order that the consideration of families and carers becomes a routine part of mainstream services. 

Suffolk's HSJ Award-nominated People Project aims to empower service users and carers. Participants attend workshops on subjects including getting heard. The project has secured a new round of funding to take it through to August 2006.