CHCAGE011 - Provide support to people living with dementia

For Melbourne campuses

Assessment tasks will be designed to reinforce & extend knowledge and skill competence within set & controlled parameters in accordance with each units learning outcomes & performance criteria requirements, including the setting of work based practical application tasks designed to provide evidence of competence outcomes, within periodic and scheduled timelines.

Students will be expected to demonstrate the following required skills:

• provide support according to an individualised plan, to two different people living with dementia, including:

• using a person-centred approach to support, that upholds the rights and dignity of the person
• using of communication strategies tailored to the needs of the person
• supporting activities that meet the person’s needs
• using strategies to minimise adverse outcomes associated with changed behaviour specific to the person, which may impact the person or others
• completing reports and documentation.

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.