Supporting People with Dementia

We help people with dementia, and older people with other mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, to find support for their care needs. We want to help people stay in their home for as long as possible, maintaining their independence.

First, we'll have a conversation about the best way forward in your situation. This may involve a discussion about resources in your community that might be helpful. It will also include consideration of your strengths, things you can still do independently, and those things where your family, carers or wider community can help.

The conversation we have may include consideration of your care and support needs against national eligibility criteria. 

Contact Adult Social Care as a first step.
 

How We Can Help

We can help by offering:

• expertise, knowledge and experience
   
• information, advice and connecting you with other services
   
• routine reviews to ensure that care arrangements are still meeting your needs and are of an acceptable quality
   
• legal expertise and advice, and where appropriate, mental capacity assessments and best interest assessments
   
• close working with Berkshire Healthcare Mental Health Services, based at West Berkshire Community hospital which has a well-established memory clinic; joint working makes sure we are able to make the best use of what's available to you
   
• help at home to support people as necessary with personal care and essential daily living
   
• supporting carers to enable them to continue in their role; we recognise the value of providing carers with good support
   
• helping you find to a range of specialist services such as the Alzheimers Society and Age UK
   
• exploring NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility
   
• specialist Occupational Therapists who can provide equipment and assistive technology, to maximise people's ability to live independently
   
• a reablement service to help people come home from hospital safely and quickly
   
• dementia-specific residential and nursing care and Extra Care housing
   
• safeguarding for adults at risk - we work with other agencies to prevent abuse of adults at risk and investigate any concerns

Where an individual receives social care services funded by West Berkshire Council, a financial assessment will be offered to help you understand charges for your care.

We'll also offer advice where someone lacks the capacity to manage their affairs and finances.