“What can’t we do?” was the question Lorna Nash looked to answer for people receiving a diagnosis of dementia and their families, ahead of a challenging journey ahead.
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After months of talks with other members of the Beechworth Carers Support group, the answer came back: we can’t reach people early enough.
“Then it was the article, in The Border Mail, talking about exactly what we wanted,” Mrs Nash said.
“Vicki from Alzhiemers Australia Victoria picked up on that, got in touch with me and within two days we were sitting at a table talking about it.”
Mrs Nash, in conjunction with dementia consultant Vicki Upston, has now developed a toolkit for general practitioners to hand out in the case of a dementia diagnosis.
Ms Upston said the resource pack was the first of its kind.
“There is information for the GP, quite clinical for himself or herself, but not for the patient – not from what I’m aware of,” she said.
“Clients I see are often not happy with how the doctors handled it but I think it’s improving.
“The information isn’t getting to the patients when they need it, at the very beginning of their journey.”
Beechworth Surgery practice manager John McColl said the information pack would create a “consolidated” source of advice.
“Typically what happens is somebody will have some symptoms and the next stage is, assuming it’s reasonable, the person will get some testing done,” he said.
“At that point of diagnosis, the pack would come into play.
“It brings it all together for us, whereas at the moment we’re pulling on several resources – this is a real strength to give them this.
“What it does is give every carer or person with a diagnosis some consistent information and a broad range of information about where to go and how to get support.”
Mr McColl said the pack would be trialled at the Beechworth Surgery and feedback given to Alzheimers Australia.
“I would be keen to get it in the other practices – the plan is we’ll run a bit of a pilot and see how it goes,” he said.
“There might be things that need to be improved, and once we do that, pass it forward.”
Mrs Nash hoped the toolkit would mean the support group stopped hearing of people leaving doctors’ offices feeling alone.
“When things finally break down and get out of your control, you cannot cope with that, it’s such a massive emotional trauma,” she said.
“You do need somebody around you who understands, and if you suddenly find there are other people going through the same thing, those problems you have are halved.”