Clinical tools and resources
Dementia guidelines, toolkits, measures and other resources for professionals and care workers.
Dementia guidelines
- Clinical practice guidelines and principles of care for people with dementia: recommendations
Over 100 recommendations that health and aged care staff can apply in their workplaces while also responding to the needs and preferences of the person with dementia, their carers and family.
- Smoking, Nutrition, Alcohol and Physical Activity (SNAP): a population health guide to risk factors in general practice
This guide has been designed to assist GPs and practice staff (the GP practice team) to work with patients on the lifestyle risk factors of smoking, nutrition, alcohol and physical activity (SNAP).
- Delirium Clinical Care Standard
This clinical care standard aims to improve the prevention of delirium in patients at risk – and the early diagnosis and treatment of patients with delirium.
- RACGP aged care clinical guide (Silver Book)
RACGP Silver Book: An essential resource for GPs caring for older people in the community and residential aged care.
- BPSD Quick Reference Cards
Provides an on-the-spot point of reference for health professionals and care staff working with people with dementia to help in the management of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD).
- HealthPathways Community
HealthPathways is an online manual used by clinicians to help make assessment, management, and specialist request decisions for over 550 conditions.
- Dementia Pathways Tool
Provides a comprehensive yet intuitive web-based repository of dementia-related information, tools, service directories and resources which is publicly available.
Dementia and delirium in acute care
Dementia care in hospitals needs to be improved to ensure that people living with dementia, their carers and families can expect to receive care of the highest quality.
Any person going into hospital can find the experience stressful. For a person with a cognitive impairment - who may be having difficulty with their memory, thinking or communication - the experience can be overwhelming.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care acknowledges that patients with cognitive impairment need extra care and supervision to stay safe during their hospital admission. People with dementia are more likely to experience falls, sepsis, pressure ulcers, fractures and delirium while in hospital (resulting in a five-fold increase in mortality rates).
There is potential to improve the ability to identify or respond appropriately to people with dementia. Below are some examples of state-based and national programs. Essentially, the programs share common goals such as to:
- identify and manage dementia at hospital admission and plan for discharge from the outset
- involve family carers in the care and support of patients
- train staff to better understand dementia and communicate more effectively with people with dementia
- use alternatives, such as psychosocial interventions, to the use of antipsychotic medication and sedatives
- adapt the hospital physical environment to reduce distractions and help orientate patients with dementia
- reduce avoidable hospital admissions.
- The Dementia Care in Hospitals Program (DCHP)
A model of care to support patient with cognitive impairment and their families while in hospital, linked to the use of an over bedside alert, the Cognitive Impairment Identifier (CII).
- TOP5
An opportunity for carers to voice their unique knowledge about the person they care for, and for health staff to harness this expertise to inform and guide them on the specific needs of a patient.
