With this project, the DEAL partnership wants to contribute to the efforts being done at several levels in all Europe to meet the challenge of the increasing number of people suffering from dementia. The partners are representing education of caregivers and care giver organisations in Denmark, Holland, Italy and Greece. The care for people with dementia is very differently organized in the countries we are focusing on in the DEAL project: In Denmark and Holland, the care of elderly is institutionalized and welfare technology is introduced and being implemented. In Italy and Greece, most of those, who suffer from dementia, are cared for by their relatives, and the family caregivers usually do not have any specific kind of training or qualification to give the family member with dementia a proper care. The professional caregivers are support figures, complementary to the family members, but many of them are immigrants, most of them women, who also lack professional training to be able to provide adequate care. As a whole, employees at Danish and Dutch nursing homes are educated, however sometimes uneducated people are employed because of lack of available educated staff - and furthermore, not even the educated staff is always sufficiently competent with regard to dementia. When you work with people with dementia, you need to be well educated. People with dementia in nursing homes in these two counties, all have advanced dementia. This means that their short-term memory is almost gone, their language is failing, they cannot plan anything, and they need help to perform daily activities. So the need for strengthening competences and skills in this field is evident for all European countries - even though at different levels and in different shades. In order to increase skills and competences that are relevant, there must be a link – a partnership – between education and work place. The two parts must know each other’s' challenges and strong sides, they must work together to improve the training/teaching and the quality of the work in the sector. This does not always happen – and causes frustration for both parts. The overall methodology of this project is to involve the caregivers as co-developers of the training program we will develop for the sector. The direct target groups of the activities of this project are the following: • Trainers and teachers in care educations • Students at care educations • Care staff • Decision makers in the field of education However, relatives of people with dementia will also benefit from the project results and the final beneficent is the person suffering from dementia. The objectives are: • to improve the competences of teachers and trainers who educate and train care givers with regard to dementia • to improve competences of the care givers with regard to dementia This includes not only gaining knew knowledge but also considering the approach to people with dementia • to extend and qualify the cooperation between educational institutions and care giver organizations • to elevate the status of care for people with dementia as it is a low-status area in the field of care. To make it more attractive and thus easier to hire staff for this kind of care - and for care in general • to give suggestions and recommendation to the decision makers in the field of basic health care education. In spite of the facts about dementia that is mentioned in the above, the topic “dementia” is given low priority in the basic care educations. There are 5 Intellectual Outputs in the project: A workshop on practice in the field of dementia, where 4 care givers and 4 trainers and teachers in each country will give input to the training program to be developed. Development of a training program. A piloting involving 80 persons from the partner countries. Production of a video aiming at elevating the status of care for people with dementia. Policy recommendations addressing decision makers in the field of basic health care educations. The implementation of the project will lead to a required enhancement of competences among trainers, teachers and students in health care educations and among care staff, in relation to treatment of people with dementia. The establishment of permanent fora/channels/procedures will ensure that the exchange of experiences and continuous communication between education and work life will not end with the end of the project but will continue as permanent activities • The recommendations addressing the decision makers in the field of basic health education will lead to a prioritization of the topic dementia in the basic care educations. The video that will be produced will lead to a bigger interest for the job as a caregiver for people with dementia and to care giving in general and make it easier to attract staff to the sector. In total: Improvement of the treatment and the quality of life for people with dementia.
“DEAL – Dementia, Education, Approach, Life” was a 2-year ERASMUS+ project, which aimed 1) to improve the competences of teachers and caregivers with regard to dementia, 2) to extend the cooperation between educational institutions and caregiving organizations 3) to elevate the status of dementia caregiving and 4) to give recommendations to decision makers in the field of education. The project started in November 2018 and ended in December 2020. The number of people suffering from dementia is growing in the whole world. It will continue to grow and consequently, the socio-economic burden will increase. Due to their prevalence, cost and profound impact on society, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia therefore are public health priorities in EU Member States. As most European countries are recognizing the challenge they are facing, they have launched national dementia plans with many initiatives to be carried out. In the more wealthy countries, new technology is developed and implemented in the field. However, there seems to be a missing link between on one side: all the research done, all the existing knowledge, the awareness, the enormous amount of money spent – and on the other side: the priority this topic is given in the education of the basic care staff in the care educations in Europe. The DEAL project was carried out internationally to exchange experiences and best practices among very different ways of caring for people with dementia in different countries – including differences in the approach to the person in need of care. It was successfully implemented by eight partners from Denmark, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and Spain. The project partners worked in double partnerships in each country: One partner representing working life and the other partner representing care educations. DEAL project was targeting: • Trainers and teachers in care educations • Students at care educations • Care staff - first and foremost professional caregivers, but also informal caregivers can benefit • Decision makers in the field of education However, relatives of people with dementia will also benefit from the project results and the final beneficent is the person suffering from dementia. The objectives of the project were to: • improve the competences of teachers and trainers who educate and train caregivers about dementia • extend and qualify the cooperation between educational institutions and caregiver organizations • elevate the status of care for people with dementia as it is a low-status area in the field of care • give suggestions and recommendation to the decision makers in the field of basic health care education During the project’s lifetime, the following main outputs were produced: • Online training program for caregivers of people with dementia: The training program provides specialized knowledge on dementia and methods for supporting and caring for people with dementia. The training program consists of 8 modules and a Teacher’s Guide in English, Italian, Dutch, Greek, Danish and Spanish. Besides it contains four modules that were developed for the specific national context in Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy. These modules are to be found in the national languages only. • Video for caregivers of people with dementia: The project partners created a video promoting the care work for people with dementia. This video aims at elevating not only the status of the care for people with dementia, but also the status of basic care and basic care education in general. The video shows that it is meaningful and rewarding to work with people with dementia in spite of all the difficulties. • A policy paper for decision makers. The policy paper is targeting relevant stakeholders in the field of education. It consists of a general part containing the results of the DEAL project and sections containing the national recommendations. The DEAL training program was tested by about 150 persons in Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy and Greece: professional caregivers, family members/friends of people with dementia and students at medical schools and health care colleges. As the DEAL material is already being used by the involved organisation, the impact is increased competences among teachers and caregivers in the field. The video promoting dementia care will be disseminated and used by health care educational institutions to attract students and staff to dementia care, it will elevate the status of the care and also give a better understanding of what dementia is. Another important impact is that the cooperation between care institutions and educational institutions has been strengthened, which has led to a greater understanding and the creation of more practice-adapted education. All partners carried out many dissemination activities including Multiplier events (face-to-face or online) in Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands and Greece.