People Nursing in association with Journal of Clinical Nursing 13, 6b, 57-67 Community mental health nursing and early intervention in dementia: developing practice through a single case history This paper reports on a single case history taken from the 'Dementia Action Research and Education' project, a 15-month primary care intervention study that was undertaken in North Wales in the early part of 2000. The study sought to address the meaning, context and diversity of early intervention in dementia care and employed a community mental health nurse and a psychiatric social worker to undertake early and psychosocial interventions with older people with dementia (aged 75 years and over) and their families. The workers tape-recorded, documented and analysed their interventions with 27 older people with dementia and their families over the 15-month duration of the study. Clinical supervision was also undertaken during the intervention phase. One case history is presented in this paper to illustrate the work of the community mental health nurse and to identify areas of practice development. Greater role transparency, collaborative working and improvement in educational preparation for practice are called for.

Given the rise in the global number of people with dementia, the need for interventions to reduce the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) is ever present. This paper explores the evidence for the effectiveness of two non-pharmacological approaches; doll therapy and environment modification, to reduce behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. The evidence base is relatively weak owing to the small number of studies on this topic and the lack of rigor of the methodologies used. Despite this, the outcome from the studies reviewed generally supports the use of both interventions for reducing BPSD in people with dementia.

Service user involvement in mental health services is now accepted by mental health trusts and commissioners as an important feature of service development. Service users are playing an increasingly important role in training professionals, and can be particularly effective in challenging beliefs and prejudices held about mental illness. Em Jones and Sue Hahn describe how they have been working together, delivering training on sexuality and mental health, and self‐harm.