Review: Partners in Care#

Partners in Care

★★★★★

Bob Woods, John Keady, Helen Ross and Clare Wenger

Jessica Kingsley

ISBN 9781843106753

This 30-minute DVD is about the benefits of building a three-way relationship between the person with dementia, their relative and care home staff members, writes Joy Bounds.

It is designed as a four-session training course, complete with facilitator’s booklet, for care home staff and family carers to study together.

This DVD complements the book Involving Families in Care Homes: A Relationship-Centred Approach.

The first session, Sharing Information, explores what is useful for the family carer to share with care home staff when the person with dementia arrives there. But also it looks at how helpful it is if the staff share with relatives daily events and developments that occur when they’re not there.

Sharing the Care looks at how to help family carers continue, if they wish, to be involved in caring for their relative, and become more involved in the overall activity of the home. In the third session, Supportive Relationships, we see how positive, respectful relationships can create a supportive system that enhances everyone’s involvement.

The final section, Making It Work, covers the negotiations that sometimes have to be done, and the flexibility needed, to achieve an effective partnership.

This DVD is packed with good, practical common sense that will encourage everyone involved in the care of people with dementia.

Joy Bounds is a retired social worker

This review is published in the 5 November issue of Community Care magazine