This report describes my personal journey as a leadership scholar as well as my intention to design and implement a brand new service in the community for dementia patients. I am currently Director of Quality, Clinical Excellence and Operations at Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust. A year on I remain in the same post but with a larger and continually changing portfolio. I also have a clear career plan. My Trust has embraced my project area and we are now the proud employers of two of the first specialist roles focussing on improving the experience and quality of lives for patients and their families living with dementia.
My project focussed on developing new roles in the community to support people living with dementia and their carers to remain within their own homes for as long as possible, preventing Hospital admissions. Funding for dementia has largely been allocated to mental health Trusts or Acute Trusts whereas I believe that it is not a mental health condition but a chronic long term condition that is often coupled with co morbidities. The majority of patients on acute wards and on community nursing caseloads are affected by cognitive impairment and therefore this condition should not be seen as a specialism but as a normal part of Society. Many people living with dementia feel isolated and can struggle to manage on a day to day basis. Community services are well placed to identify these people and work with them to identify the support they need at home. My project resulted in a learn as you go approach to designing, employing and developing two specialist roles. The roles were employed in July 2015 and we have ambitious and exciting plans for next year whereby we are hoping to create a dementia friendly ward in our Hospital and develop a dementia team of specialists, assistants and voluntary partners to really provide a holistic and patient centred model of community care. This model will encourage co design with patients , families and the voluntary sector.
During the scholarship I was fortunate enough to shadow specialists in the field of dementia, utilising my mentor’s area of expertise to identify leaders in the field of Alzheimer’s. I was able to spend a day with the Alzheimer’s Society, meet with key senior staff in the field of elderly care as well as spend a day with a local MP at the Houses of parliament.
Encouraged, following my initial learning assessment, I was able to identify some key learning opportunities for me to support my leadership development. The learning assessment identified that I am self-aware but needed to build up confidence in my own capabilities and to learn to say no. Understanding my learning style enabled me to identify specific opportunities to do this. The Leading Change programme strengthened my resolve to deliver my project as well as flex the outcomes according to patient need. As a group this programme enabled scholars to learn together, drive forwards change and if they chose to- to do so together. I have maintained some of the learning tools shared at the programme throughout my scholarship as well as maintained a learning log and diary as suggested by my mentor. Both of these have been instrumental in the success of my project. Whilst disappointed that I was unable to attend the RADA experience the scholarship enabled me to identify a suitable finance for Directors course and to enhance my presentation skills and share my passion with confidence at two international conferences as well as speaking at the Florence Nightingale Conference itself. Our scholars group met up again in Northern Island to share our experiences, draw from each other’s learning to date as well as meet with integrated health and social care system leaders to learn from their experience. The scholarship opportunities have enabled me to develop my political and financial acumen as well as undertake a visit abroad. I went to Australia to understand their approach in meeting the needs of diverse communities, present at international conference on these roles and learn from those working with isolated groups on the challenges of meeting the needs of people living with dementia. I culminated my online learning by holding a twitter feed and workshop at the Florence Nightingale Conference.
The project has enabled my personal growth, utilised and enhanced my leadership skills as well as the project itself being successfully achieved within the year of the scholarship. I am pleased to report that these posts are substantive and already we are seeing the positive impact they are having on people’s lives. My aim is to continue to develop the roles, seek additional funding to increase the team into a broader holistic model and redesign our community wards to accommodate dementia patients.
I am confident that the credibility and reputation of the Foundation has had a significant impact on the success of my project area. Thank you.