Admiral Nursing: case management for families affected by dementia

Abstract

The number of people with dementia is expected to increase globally. People with dementia are not affected in isolation and any intervention should also support their families and carers. Intervention is best delivered using a relationship-centred approach and a case management model. Case management has an established and successful history in supporting people with long-term conditions and those with a diagnosis of severe mental illness. This article, the last in this dementia series, discusses the Admiral Nursing case management approach to supporting patients and families affected by dementia, and provides recommendations for establishing a gold standard model of case management.

How do Admiral Nurses and care home staff help people living with dementia and their family carers prepare for end‐of‐life?

“…Admiral Nurses are UK specialists in dementia care and provide a case management approach to support families affected by dementia from the point of diagnosis through to support of family carers in bereavement. 17,18 Dementia UK is the charity that has developed this approach and is responsible for upholding standards and supporting Admiral Nurses in practice. 18 Recent benchmarking by Dementia UK identified that the Admiral Nurse gold standard model of case management was consistent with EAPC recommendations.…”

“…In the current study, we surveyed Admiral Nurses and care homes to explore how they help people living with dementia and their carers prepare for the end‐of‐life and manage grief. Admiral Nurses are UK specialists in dementia care and provide a case management approach to support families affected by dementia from the point of diagnosis through to support of family carers in bereavement . Dementia UK is the charity that has developed this approach and is responsible for upholding standards and supporting Admiral Nurses in practice .…”

Evaluation of an integrated service delivering post diagnostic care and support for people living with dementia and their families

“…Nursing is a specialist nursing role providing long-term support and care for people living with dementia and their family carers which was developed by Dementia UK (Harrison Dening, Aldridge, Pepper, & Hodgkison, 2017). Dementia advisers provide social support.…”

Admiral Nursing: combining specialist dementia and hospice care

“…Another important aspect of her role is to promote the work of Kirkwood Hospice in relation to dementia care amongst the local community. As a large part of Jacqueline's role is focused on staff development and consultancy she envisages she will also hold a small caseload of people with dementia and their carers where their needs are complex and require a case management approach [24]. Jacqueline argues one of the benefits of having a number of other services locally supporting people with dementia and their carers at different points in the disease trajectory, is the hospice Admiral Nurse is more able to focus on advance care planning at an earlier point but also ensure if the opportunity is missed at an earlier stage, then people with dementia and their carers are supported to access the most appropriate end of life care required and available at that time.…”

“…The Admiral Nursing model was developed to provide case management [24] for families affected by dementia to be better able to cope, enable people with dementia to stay at home, and to live more independently and positively with their condition. Admiral Nurses work across a variety of NHS organisations (primary, secondary, acute and community care) as well as in social care, care home and hospice settings.…”