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Background

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You need to do a comprehensive assessment (or review) and develop a robust care plan for your client John and carer Alice. This is important because you need to identify and manage their needs and risks, and meet compliance requirements.

However, it’s easier said than done.

This is what most assessment and care plan templates look like this. They are based on domains as defined by the Department, such as activities of daily living and personal care, cognition and mental health, food and nutrition, transport and driving.

And despite having those domain headings, there is no content within each domain to guide care professionals such as case managers or care coordinators.

Faced with “blank boxes" for each domain, it is difficult to remember what questions to ask in order to assess needs or risk, and what solutions to put in place to mitigate those risks to re-enable independence.

This leads to time wastage and stress for care professionals as they try to piece everything together using information from Google, leading to inconsistencies, risks and poor assessments and care plans.

 

How to use the PRO to help?

(1 min 22 sec)

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My Dementia Companion PRO’s Care Plan feature can solve this. And it’s very easy to use.

In the “All info” tab, click on the “Care Plan” button here. 

 
Now you can see a list of standard assessment and care plan template domains in the middle column.

When you click on a domain, such ADL and personal care, we will show you the relevant Topics for that domain, such as “Simple techniques to cope with changes at home” or “Healthy living and ageing for the person”.

When clicked, the Sections will appear in the right column. The Section headings can act as a prompt for your assessment or questions to ask, such as does John and Alice need help with “Establishing a routine”, “Making tasks simpler” or “Cooking and managing meals”? Do they need memory aids in place? Do they need signages at home?

When a need or risk is identified, you can click on the Section heading to expand the content within, including care strategies, system navigation, aids or equipment and more, such as 

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• how to involve the person to cook safely and aids to help

• where to find dementia friendly signage for free or purchase them

• strategies and tools to help John to remember things.

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When Sections are relevant and need to be actioned, you can share them via the “Share” feature, which we demonstrate how to use that in a separate tutorial.

Mark the item as Done for when you are printing the content or have showed them this information during a home visit or online.

After you have used “Share” or “Mark Done” for the relevant Sections, you can track your actions by using the “View as” feature here.

You select John and Alice Smith and then you can see what you have shared with the Shared icon, or a tick icon for those that are marked done.

The counter in the middle columns helps you track their journey easily, and also helps with planning your work and creating evidence-based care planning as part of compliance requirements or audits.

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When to use the "Care Plan" feature?

(3 min 22 sec)

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Some users prefer to go into assessments without any templates or tools, just have conversations and write everything down as freehand notes. Then they come back to their desk to open the PRO “Care Plan” feature side by side with their template to prompt them to complete it.
 

Some users prefer to load their templates and use the PRO’s “Care Plan'' feature during the interviews to prompt their questioning and discussions, so they have a bit more of a structure and ensure nothing is missed.

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Additional notes

(3 min 50 sec)

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Here are some additional notes about using the PRO for assessments and care planning:

 

• We can even tailor the domains to match your organisation’s template. You can contact us to find out more

• And best of all, all the information is evidence-based, quality and up-to-date as we only curate resources from reputable experts and organisations     

• Remember, don’t try to cover off every Topic and Section in one go. Dementia is a journey and things change. If it’s not relevant, you can skip to other prompts down the list as part of person-centred care

• Don’t forget you can use the search function to find resources quickly

• We only provide you with prompts and do not replace your professional training and judgement. Please review the content and if anything is missing, let us know

• The PRO should be used to supplement and prompt you as you do your assessment and care plan

• Click on the heading to open or collapse, or click on the “Collapse/ Expand All” button to collapse all Sections if you have too many Sections open. This can help you re-orientate yourself with the Topic.

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Thank you for tuning in and we are looking forward to continuing to support you in the amazing work that you do!

Don’t forget to reach out to us if you have any questions.