Residential and Community Care

Dementia awareness for public contact staff

CERA was funded by the NSW Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care to promote dementia awareness training for staff dealing with the public in large public and private organisations. The project was conducted during 2003 in collaboration with Alzheimer's Association NSW. The project began with input from carers and people with early Alzheimer's disease. A number of organisations were approached to be involved in the project and three took up the offer - the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, NSW Police and the Gosford Council.

Outcomes

In each case, the project staff worked with the organisation to develop educational resources that addressed their specific situation and needs. The outcomes and educational formats for the three participating organisations included:

Pharmacy Self Care Program

Fact Card for general public titled Alzheimer's disease and other causes of dementia. To view a pdf version of the Fact Card, link here Publication in Inpharmation (Pharmacy Self Care magazine - with sections on the topic for pharmacist and pharmacy assistants); entitled - Alzheimer's disease and other causes of dementia (Facts behind the fact card), C Shanley, 2004; (Jan/Feb): 6-13.

NSW Police

Attempted to extend agenda beyond training Strong emphasis on wandering Multi-prong reinforcement of material Package for workplace education officers

Self-directed multimedia learning program Article in Policing Issues and Practice Journal Section within FAQ program on Police Intranet

Gosford Council

Education program with customer service focus for all public contact staff Interactive education program from either CD or Council’s intranet Quiz assessment option, with a printable result certificate and/or saving results to a data storage facility when the program is served via a local intranet setting Looking to adapt program to be suitable for all Councils Note: A simplified flash version of the interactive CD education program is available on the "Resources - General Presentations" page of this site, link here