Dementia guide for carers and care providers

If you care for someone with dementia, this guide is for you.

This guide offers practical information for anyone caring for a person with dementia, and has been developed in collaboration with healthcare professionals, educators and carers. The guide aims to support an understanding of the progressive nature of dementia and the challenges a person caring for someone with dementia may experience. Its focus is on living well with dementia.

It summarises many things you and the person you are caring for may need to think about. Some of the information here is important now. Other information will be useful later but is here for reference when you need it.

The guide contains six main sections:
- Understanding dementia: what it is, its symptoms and treatment
- Day-to-day-living: looking after the person with dementia, yourself, and the family
- Support: people and organisations who can help
- Legal and money: advice and sources of help
- Symptoms and behaviours: a look-up guide
- Medical terms: definitions of medical terms and abbreviations which medical professionals may use.

The guide has been developed by Health Education England Thames Valley, in partnership with the Centre for Information Design Research, University of Reading. The guide builds on the excellent work of Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Reading, who jointly developed the hard-copy ‘Dementia handbook for carers’. These organisations worked closely with a group of people who had first hand experience of caring for someone living with dementia. The original handbook was developed as part of a research project, funded by the 2012 Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge, to improve delivery of information to carers and to give them better access to local health, social and voluntary support and services.