Using video consultations to support family carers of people living with dementia
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Using video consultations to support family carers of people living with dementia

Gayle Madden Practice development facilitator, Dementia UK, London, England
Tom Rose Admiral Nurse clinical lead, St Barnabas Hospice, Lincolnshire, England
Lucy Crystal Insight and evaluation adviser, Dementia UK, London, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To enhance your understanding of how Admiral Nurses support family carers of people living with dementia

  • To reflect on the benefits and challenges of conducting video consultations with service users

  • To read about the experiences of a team of Admiral Nurses in setting up and conducting video consultations

Established in 2019, the Lincolnshire Admiral Nurse Service supports family carers of people living with dementia through psychosocial interventions. Before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the team provided home visits as standard, but the fact that Lincolnshire is a large rural county affected the team’s ability to provide timely support to all the carers who needed it. In 2019-20, a practice development project underpinned by participatory action research was undertaken to trial the use of video consultations with carers. However, carers’ uptake of video consultations was low and the project was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article describes the project and discusses the findings of its evaluation. The Admiral Nurse team had mixed experiences and felt that, overall, its support was more effective when delivered face to face. The project provides insights into the challenges and benefits of video consultations for delivering psychosocial interventions to carers of people living with dementia.

Nursing Older People. doi: 10.7748/nop.2021.e1346

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@gayleborley

Correspondence

Gayle.Madden@dementiauk.org

Conflict of interest

None declared

Madden G, Rose T, Crystal L (2021) Using video consultations to support family carers of people living with dementia. Nursing Older People. doi: 10.7748/nop.2021.e1346

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the Lincolnshire Admiral Nurse team for their participation in the project

Published online: 25 August 2021

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