The purpose of this paper is to explore how social housing providers could respond to residents living with dementia in non-specialist housing.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how social housing providers could respond to residents living with dementia in non-specialist housing.
Design/methodology/approach
A research framework was developed from published material and used to assess how dementia friendly a national housing provider was, and what could be different. Electronic surveys were completed by 209 members of staff; semi-structured interviews with 18 senior managers and an external contractor; a customer focus group with five residents. A literature review and telephone interviews with housing providers identified current areas of innovation and good practice which informed the research recommendations.
Findings
There are ways a non-specialist social housing provider can develop dementia friendly services through developing a customer focused approach, staff awareness raising and training, and through working collaboratively with specialist statutory and non-statutory services across health and social care. These have the potential to impact positively on the quality of life of residents with dementia or caring for people with dementia.
Practical implications
Social housing providers should be considering their older residents, and how they can design and develop services to respond to specific needs.
Originality/value
There is limited understanding of how mainstream housing providers could and should develop an offer for their residents living with dementia. This research provides an assessment approach and has developed ideas about what this offer could look like.
Details
Keywords
DON REVILL, ABRAHAM SILENCE, RONALD D CODLIN and SHEILA RAY
FOLLOWING ON from Roy Tomlinson's article (NLW July), while agreeing with much that he says I would like to enlarge on some points. I had hoped that the educational technology…
Abstract
FOLLOWING ON from Roy Tomlinson's article (NLW July), while agreeing with much that he says I would like to enlarge on some points. I had hoped that the educational technology argument had been laid to rest after the publication in the Times higher educational supplement of correspondence occasioned by the Library Association's statements on resource centres.