Staff from the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust have undertaken specialist training to improve communications with people with dementia on the frontline.

The team of staff, from across the Trust, are the first group from an emergency service in the UK to receive training from dementia communications specialist – Empowered Conversations.

The training aims to give practical ways to connect with people with dementia when they encounter barriers in communication such as word finding.

Alison Johnstone, Programme Manager for Dementia at the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: “Dementia is set to be the 21st century’s biggest healthcare challenge, so we are passionate about improving the experience for people living with dementia who use our services, as well as considering the impact it will have on our workforce.

“Our staff are so often in the frontline when it comes to helping people living with dementia.

"We want to make sure they are trained and informed about the condition so that they have a good understanding of how to best support patients, families and carers.

“A large part of this is thinking about how we communicate and build relationships with people with dementia and the Empowered Conversations course allowed us to explore opportunities and techniques to engage and communicate more effectively, as we better understand how dementia affects communication skills.”

The Trust is already registered as a Dementia Friendly Community by Alzheimer’s Society and has developed a Dementia Plan 2017-2020 to improve the services provided for people living with dementia.

According to Dementia Statistics by Alzheimer’s Research UK, Wales has the lowest diagnosis rates in the UK at 58%, which is 21,895 people, followed by Scotland (67%), England (71%) and Northern Ireland (73%). It is estimated more than 42,000 people in Wales are living with dementia and in the UK as a whole it is expected to rise to 1 million people by 2025.

Emma Smith, project manager for Empowered Conversations, which delivered the course, said: “It was great to be able to deliver training to help frontline staff and other members of the team be better equipped to support people with dementia – and we hope this is just the start of the partnership.

“Many of us worry about ‘saying the wrong thing' to someone with dementia, yet a friendly face or listening ear can make the world of difference; and sometimes conversations and connections do not have to be about words.

“It is the first time that we have delivered the course to an emergency service – so the Welsh Ambulance Service are the pioneers in the sector and we hope that others will follow suit – to help make their jobs easier and more rewarding and support people living with dementia and their families at a time when dementia is on the rise across Wales and the whole of the UK.”

The Empowered Conversation communications training course – has been developed by Salford social enterprise Six Degrees and the University of Salford’s Institute for Dementia and is supported by the Big Lottery Fund.

For more information Empowered Conversations go to www.empowered-conversations.co.uk