CHCAGE011 - Provide support to people living with dementia

Students will also be expected to demonstrate the following knowledge:

• awareness of current research on dementia
• types and causes of dementia, including but not limited to:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• vascular dementia or multi-infarct dementia
• Lewy bodies
• excessive alcohol intake or Korsakov’s Syndrome
• frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FLTD)
• Huntington’s disease
• Parkinson’s disease
• younger onset dementia

• dementia as a progressive neurological condition, including pathological features:

• amyloid plaques
• neurofibrillary tangles
• loss of connection between cells and cell death

• common indicators and symptoms of dementia
• potential interventions and proactive strategies that may be used to address identified behaviour:

• identification of triggers
• behaviour as an indicator of unmet needs
• impact of environment

• restrictive practices:

• what constitutes a restrictive practice
• legislative and regulatory requirements
• organisational policies and procedures relating to restricted practices
• positive strategies
• ethical considerations
• documentation requirements

• processes for recognising and reporting indicators of injury, infection, illness and pain and the impact on the person’s behaviour
• progression of dementia and potential impact on the person living with dementia and their family and carer, including but not limited to:

• depression
• loss and grieving
• anger or aggression toward carer, family or others
• despair
• delirium
• social embarrassment
• dysphagia
• loss of speech and cognition
• loss of inhibition
• isolation
• self-harm
• social devaluation
• suicidal ideation

• psychosocial implications of the progression of dementia for the person, including but not limited to:

• accommodation
• financial implications
• isolation
• heightened vulnerability to abuse and exploitation

• principles of a person-centred approach to support activities which:

• enhance self-esteem and pleasure
• minimise boredom
• create a sense of personal value and self-worth

• the impact of the environment on supporting a person living with dementia to interact and engage
• forms of abuse, neglect and exploitation
• methods to engage with the person living with dementia:

• verbal and non-verbal communication strategies
• culturally sensitive and safe communication strategies
• reality orientation
• reassuring words, phrases and body language
• validation:

  acceptance of the person’s reality
  acknowledgement

• accepting expressions of distress
• reminiscence

• types of stressors and their impact, including but not limited to:

• physical:

  infection
  nutrition and dehydration
  continence
  pain

• environmental
• accumulated
• cumulative

• role of assistive technologies in supporting a person’s life activities:

• maintaining and promoting independence
• enabling inclusion and participation

• scope and breadth of assistive technologies used across the life domains, including but not limited to:

• self-care
• continence and hygiene
• communication
• mobility and transferring
• cognition and memory loss
• vision and hearing
• daily living activities
• recreation and leisure
• education and employment
• home and other environments
• eating and drinking
• pressure area management
• carer support

• legal and ethical considerations for working with people living with dementia:

• duty of care
• dignity of risk
• human rights
• relevant codes of conduct
• legislative and statutory requirements for reporting
• privacy, confidentiality and disclosure
• mandatory reporting
• work health and safety

• organisational policies and procedures for:

• reporting and documentation, including the importance of accurate, objective and appropriately detailed records
• storage of information
• referrals.