Do care homes care about dementia?
The standard of care offered to thousands of Scots suffering from dementia has fallen seriously short of what should be expected. That's the conclusion of a published by the Care Commission and the Mental Welfare Commission. It highlights concerns that residents in some care homes may be being given drugs illegally concealed in their food in an attempt to make them more manageable.
It's a worrying problem, especially given the projected increase in cases:
Among the findings in today's report:
* 75% of people were taking "psychoactive" drugs, given for behaviour problems, depression or insomnia.
* Concerns that many people had been on the same medication for long periods with no regular reviews.
* 20 people (1.5%) had been given covert medication. In the nine care homes where this was happening staff didn't know enough about how to do this lawfully and safely.
* Only 24% of people had an adequate record of their life history, a key factor in helping to treat dementia. In one case, the sum total of a person's life history was: 'likes cats; likes milk'.
* Around half of all people never left their care home and not enough people get to take part in activities that reflected their needs or interests.
Links
Download (2.1MB, PDF), report by the Care Commission/Mental Welfare Commission.
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