Michelle Harris-Allsop, who is a dementia consultant at Care Partnerships Australia in Western Australia, says that the crucial component needed to make this approach successful, is ensuring sufficient high quality and dedicated dementia care specialists out on the floor: “walking the talk” and backing up the rhetoric that exists around person-centred care for people with dementia in community and residential care.
To develop more high quality and dedicated dementia care specialists delivering person-centred care, there are a number of critical factors needed:
- better support for carers in practice and effective communication skills
- continuous building of capability through formal training programs
- more dedicated mentorship programs
