7. Improving hospital care for people with thinking and memory problems

Background:

Like all of us, people living with dementia or other neurodegenerative conditions sometimes need to be admitted to hospital for urgent or planned treatment. Being in hospital can be particularly challenging for people with a condition that causes thinking or memory problems, something doctors call ‘cognitive impairment’. Staff may struggle to give the right support that keeps the person safe and focuses on their needs.

The government and other national organisations have come up with new plans to address this, such as a review of how dementia care is delivered in hospitals. The review found that progress has slowed since COVID-19 and raised concerns that the quality of care for people with dementia has worsened. Another challenge is that many people each year are admitted to hospital with undiagnosed dementia, particularly people from underserved communities. Getting a diagnosis quickly during their hospital stay would help staff to provide better care and ensure that they receive ongoing support.

Aims and objectives:

We want to understand how NHS and government policies support people with cognitive impairment related to their dementia or neurodegenerative disease when they are in hospital. We aim to explore ways that policy changes could lead to improvements in care, diagnosis and follow up support for these people.

Methods:

We will use a five-step approach to analyse current policy in this area and identify possible changes:

• Define the context – Who is affected, how often they are hospitalised, and how many people might benefit from a dementia diagnosis in hospital
  
• Pinpoint the problem – Explain that whilst hospital care is often good and necessary, it can be very challenging for patients, families and staff, particularly where dementia is not recognised
  
• Look at the evidence – Create a timeline of English policies relating to dementia care and diagnosis and meet with relevant experts (such as the Department of Health and Social Care and people with lived experience of dementia)
  
• Explore solutions – Consider what a different approach to dementia diagnosis and care in hospitals could looks like and what is needed to make this change possible
  
• Consider the impact – Think about potential outcomes from the suggested policy changes

Policy relevance and dissemination:

At the end of the project, we hope that our findings will be used to develop policies that lead to better, more equal dementia diagnosis and care in hospitals. We will write up our findings into a report and policy briefing that will be made available on the DeNPRU-QM website. We will also submit an article to an academic journal.