The Alzheimer’s Society has launched ‘Because we’re human too’, and called on the UK Government to make dementia training mandatory for the social care workforce.
‘Because we’re human too’ highlights that while the number of people living with dementia continues to rise, the level of specialist training among care staff has not kept pace with this increasing demand.
The report says:
“Currently, no legal requirement exists for care staff to undertake dementia training in either England, Wales or Northern Ireland. Whilst some positive steps to upskill the care workforce are taking place across the three nations, developments to date have failed to make dementia training for care staff the priority it needs to be. As a result, in England, only 29% of care staff undertake any kind of dementia training, while in Wales and Northern Ireland, there is no comprehensive national data available on levels of dementia training amongst care staff.”
(NB: the 29% statistic comes from this recent Skills for Care Report: https://journalofdementiacare.co.uk/care-workers-dementia-training).
‘Because we’re human too’ goes on to detail the benefits of quality dementia training, looks at enablers and barriers to successful training implementation, and outlines the key components of impactful dementia training, alongside providing case studies.
You can read the report here: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-11/Because%20we%27re%20human%20too.pdf