1. Two sides of the same coin? Patients’ and carers’ views of UK memory services
- Author
-
Esme Moniz-Cook, Nitin Purandare, Martin Orrell, Emily Doncaster, and Sophie Hodge
- Subjects
Service (business) ,Pediatrics ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Courtesy ,business.industry ,health care facilities, manpower, and services ,social sciences ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Nursing ,Respite care ,health services administration ,medicine ,Dementia ,Geriatrics and Gerontology ,business ,human activities ,health care economics and organizations ,Accreditation - Abstract
Aim: To evaluate patients’ and carers’ experiences of attending UK memory services. Methods: As part of their enrollment in the Memory Services National Accreditation Programme, memory services sent questionnaires to patients and carers about their experiences of attending the service. Results: A total of 298 carers and 280 individuals with dementia from 21 memory services responded. People were very satisfied with the diagnostic processes and staff courtesy; however, there was a lack of written information across a range of key areas. In general, carers were better informed than patients but lacked information on respite care or how to get a carers’ assessment. Carers were more likely than patients to feel pressurized into making decisions about treatment. Conclusion: This study provides the first profile of the experiences of patients and carers attending memory services. Although in general they were very satisfied with the care received, more needs to be done to improve the provision of information.
- Published
- 2013