How a rural aged care provider transformed their dementia care, in partnership with The Dementia Centre...

A tiny town in western NSW, about 70 clicks south of Tamworth, is not where you’d expect to find an exemplar of dementia care.

But Quirindi Care Services (QCS), though small, has demonstrated remarkable commitment to their residents’ quality of life, building on their already highly regarded standard of care by accessing the deep expertise of our educators and consultants across both engagement and design.

In fact, QCS’s appetite for improvement led to them becoming the first aged care provider to trial our full engagement review service – and the impact has rippled through their entire organisation.

QCS general manager Kim Riley led the charge for change, wanting to find dementia-specific training that resulted in to better person-centred care. When she spoke with members of The Dementia Centre team at a conference, she felt they understood QCS’s rural care setting and offered a collaborative model of training that fit their needs.

'We wanted to give our staff the tools they needed so that everyone, from the kitchen right through to reception, would truly understand dementia care,' she said.

How we worked together

Our support ran the gamut of all our offerings and unfolded across three phases:

Comprehensive staff education: Over six months spanning 2023-2024, dementia consultants Linda Porter and Emma Oke delivered 22 face-to-face workshops at QCS, developing a wonderful rapport and covering topics from meaningful engagement and pain management to trauma-informed care and dementia’s impact on intimacy.

An innovative engagement review: Kim agreed to pilot our full engagement review service (‘It was an honour’, she said), which aims to educate care teams and ultimately enhance meaningful connections – on a moment-to-moment basis as staff are providing care, but also in more structured activities.

Hands-on environmental design guidance: Our Design Lead Daniel Jameson thoroughly assessed the spaces from a dementia-enabling design perspective, and made recommendations not only on physical changes, but how staff could better use the existing spaces.

'At Quirindi, everyone was very welcoming and seemed motivated to change, and because of Kim’s outlook, they had the follow through from the top down,' said Linda.

'At Quirindi, everyone was very welcoming and seemed motivated to change...'

'We give them the strategies to engage better in general, then we workshop similar scenarios rather than give specific advice – then the care team apply it. They know the person, and the person is absolutely at the heart of what we teach.'

Professional Services Lead Raquel Mitchell, who conducted the engagement review with Linda, explained that teams were coached on seemingly small things – 'A little eye contact or a smile or paying a compliment can change the way somebody with dementia feels throughout the day' – as well as a whole-person approach that digs beneath the surface.

“A little eye contact or a smile or paying a compliment can change the way somebody with dementia feels throughout the day.”

'Some people with cognitive impairment will find going into an area where an activity is being held extremely overwhelming,' she said.

'They may not want to participate and it’s easy to think that person doesn't like to come out and be involved. But actually, if you get to know them, you can understand what they might like to do instead – maybe it’s folding laundry or a bit of gardening – supporting them to do a meaningful activity gives them a sense of purpose throughout the day.'

The same principles were applied in the kitchen of one of the units, which had been an environment QCS had particularly wanted to investigate.

'The environment can either enable or disable people,' Daniel explained. 'When we walked through QCS, we noticed how noisy the dining area got at meals – sometimes as loud as a lawn mower! For someone living with dementia, that can be overwhelming.

'We suggested simple changes: softer furnishings, carpet, and alternative seating arrangements. These improve comfort and help residents see and enjoy their food.

'It’s not about grand designs but making the current space as supportive as possible.'

The difference it made

While they hope to do more extensive renovations and refurbishments in the future, QCS has been able to make changes to the spaces without any capital works so far. Combined with the team’s boost in dementia knowledge and confidence, Kim says everyone has benefitted.

“Our language has changed, which is a wonderful result, and the way we respond to our residents when they have an unmet need has also changed,” she said.

'Our language has changed, which is a wonderful result, and the way we respond to our residents when they have an unmet need has also changed.'

“We used to view this as a challenging behaviour but after the education, the team think and talk about what the resident is trying to communicate and what their unmet need might be. The team’s use of validation has also been enhanced – and this allows us to ensure the resident is placed at the centre of interactions. We have by no means perfected this, but we are certainly further down the track than we were before our collaboration with Hammond Care.”

She said that she has no doubt that transforming their dementia care capacity was worth the investment of time and money.

“The benefits to our team and our residents far outweigh the cost,” she said.

“Not to mention that value of having a relationship with Hammond Care specialist team – that is priceless.”

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