Dementia services
Shared Lives can be an amazing resource for people with dementia and their families. Find out more by watching Pat and Roger’s story.
Our short breaks services for people with dementia
Specifically trained Shared Lives carers can offer short breaks (typically a day time service or a 1-3 day overnight break) to someone with mild to moderate dementia who is living in the community, usually supported by family carers.
Shared Lives South West has developed two specialist services for people with dementia, one in Torbay and one in Cornwall. We also have a small number of carers in Devon offering support to people with dementia.
Our short breaks for people with dementia are listed in both the short break vacancies and in the SPECIALIST SERVICES vacancies for each geographical area. To go to the vacancies page – please click here
The National Dementia and Shared Lives project
Shared Lives South West and an organisation called Innovations in Dementia are jointly delivering a national project all about how Shared Lives can support people with dementia and their carers. Funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation for three years, this project is working with four Shared Lives schemes on five sites, and with the wider network of Shared Lives schemes in England. The projects main objectives are
- to gather evidence about how Shared Lives services can support people with dementia and their carers
- to collate and enable the sharing of good practice amongst Shared Lives schemes who are actively supporting people with dementia
- to develop training materials for schemes and Shared Lives carer about how to support someone with dementia in a Shared Lives setting
- to produce information for commissioners of adult social care services about the benefits and cost effectiveness of Shared Lives services.
If you would like more information about this project, you can contact Jane Bell at Shared Lives South West or Rachael Litherland at Innovations and Dementia.
Shared Lives and dementia scheme training pack available soon – watch this space!!
To find out more about the work of Innovations in Dementia, please click here