Hospitals are especially challenging for people living with dementia. The busy and unfamiliar environments, strange sounds, new people, changing schedules, and often new medications can be disorienting and even upsetting for people living with dementia.
The Dementia Friendly Hospital Toolkit draws on the teaching, research, and practice expertise and family caregiving experiences of our School of Nursing team; peer-reviewed studies of initiatives to improve acute care for people living with dementia; and extensive input from family care partners, hospital leadership, and hospital staff across roles.
The toolkit includes:
- An organizational guide that helps hospitals develop an ongoing training plan based on their goals and learning opportunities
- Eight interactive role play scenarios, with learning objectives, facilitator guides, scripts, handouts, and options for carrying out role play trainings
- Five short training videos, with learning objectives, handouts, and options for using the videos
- Additional resources that help hospitals measure progress, align their dementia friendly work with Age-Friendly Health Systems initiatives, and provide additional context on the common needs of and supports for people living with dementia and their family caregivers
