Most people with advanced dementia in the UK live and die in care homes. In the later stages of dementia, people are profoundly physically and cognitively disabled; they are generally unable to engage in conventional activities and become marginalised.
The Namaste Care programme is a seven days a week care programme integrating compassionate nursing care with individualised, meaningful activities for people with advanced dementia at the end of their lives. Namaste Care seeks to engage people with advanced dementia through sensory input, especially touch, and to enrich their quality of life.
Ashton House is the first nursing home in West Sussex to have rolled out the Namaste Care program for for residents with advanced dementia.
Five care homes looking after people with dementia collaborated in an action research study. Care home staff received an introduction to Namaste Care which included role modelling. The Namaste Care programme was then implemented by each care home.
Quantitative and qualitative data were collected before, during and after the programme from residents, care staff, managers and relatives.
Benefits for Residents:
Residents
Benefits for care staff:
Care staff found that the Namaste Care programme
Benefits for relatives:
Families and friends
Where there was strong leadership and good nursing and medical care, the Namaste Care programme improved the quality of life of residents with advanced dementia. The Namaste Care programme supported care homes to give more compassionate and dignified care to older people with advanced dementia at the end of life, and has potential to transform care throughout the sector.
Our manager Bincy Mathew had the pleasure to meet the creator of Namaste care, Joyce Simard at the Celebration of Namaste Care event at University of Worcester Arena. Namaste Care is a multi-component daily intervention designed to improve the care experiences of people living with advanced dementia. Namaste Care seeks to engage people with advanced dementia through sensory input, especially touch, and to enrich their quality of life. A 3 years research program has been done and today we discussed the evaluation, the benefits and implementation of Namaste Care in UK care homes. The End-of-Life Namaste Care Program for People with Dementia is designed to give more compassionate and dignified care to older people with advanced dementia at the end of life.