Putting dementia on the agenda at the 2024 party conferences
Our Policy and Public Affairs Manager, Faradane O’Callaghan, reflects on this year’s political party conferences and the progress we have made in the first 100 days of this Government.
Getting to know Admiral Nurse Sarah Farmer-Wright
Community Admiral Nurse Sarah shares why she became a dementia specialist nurse and what she enjoys about the role.
I qualified as a Registered General Nurse (RGN) in 1987. My passion for dementia care was ignited when I started working in a care home, on a 10 bedded Elderly & Mentally Infirm Unit (EMI). I’d never nursed anybody with dementia before and I really felt like something clicked – I absolutely loved it, and I worked there for eight years before redundancy brought that chapter to a close.
Following this I became a GP Practice Nurse for 9 years where, alongside my other roles, I was able to continue to use and develop my experience and practice in dementia care by carrying out all the dementia reviews of the patients on the practice register. I thoroughly enjoyed my Practice Nurse role but still felt that I wanted to develop my knowledge, skills and practice in dementia care to a more specialist level.
Becoming an Admiral Nurse
So when the Norfolk Admiral Nurse Service was set up last year I leapt at the chance to apply for a post and was absolutely over the moon when I got it. I felt it was an incredible opportunity to do something unique and very special.
There is so much that I value in my role as an Admiral Nurse: not being time-restricted; being autonomous and managing my own case load and diary so that I don’t feel rushed and that I can give carers the time that they need to feel heard and validated – being able to spend that valuable time with carers gives me a sense of freedom to support them in a really meaningful way. There are transferable skills from my time as an RGN: having a good understanding of physical health problems and how they can impact on someone’s mental health; being able to advise carers on physical health promotion; having robust understanding of how primary care works; the benefit of being able to assess someone quite quickly; having the skill to unpick things affecting that family and to get a sense of any another undercurrents going on.
Why I love being Admiral Nurse
For me, one of the most rewarding things about being an Admiral Nurse is helping carers to understand the behavioural changes that can happen when someone has dementia – helping them to understand the meaning behind those behaviours and helping them to understand the “language of dementia” so that they can continue to get glimpses of the person they love for as long as possible. Seeing carers building their resilience and strength in order to sustain their caring role is incredibly empowering.
There are challenging parts of the role too: in Norfolk, we all have very large and rural areas to cover which can seem quite isolating at times, but we have a very cohesive and supportive team and we check in with each other all the time, because we all know what it’s like working alone in the community in this way. We have regular team days so we can all have that social contact with each other as well as the opportunity to discuss and explore things relating to our caseloads and experiences.
Support from Dementia UK
The support provided by Dementia UK is second to none – I’ve been completely bowled over by it. There is such a detailed and thorough induction programme to give us a good understanding of the role. Also, we are continuously supported and encouraged with Professional Development once a month and with specialist clinical supervision on top of that. There is also the annual Admiral Nurse Forum when we can link up with Admiral Nurses from all over the UK. There’s a real sense of family within Dementia UK and I have been made to feel incredibly welcome from the very start.
Admiral Nursing is a challenging and demanding role but, without doubt, I think it is the best job in the world. Supporting people with dementia and their families in a really meaningful way, working creatively and dynamically alongside other Admiral Nurses, and with that high level of support from Dementia UK, as well as from within our own team, is just brilliant!
As Admiral Nurses, we deliver family and relationship-centred care to our carers but actually, I feel that’s what I get back in return from the local team I work with and from Dementia UK.
Admiral Nurse vacancies
If you’re a nurse who is passionate about dementia care then we’d love you to join the team
Dementia named UK’s leading cause of death for second year in a row
With more people in the UK dying of dementia than any other condition, our Head of Policy, Campaigns and Public Affairs, Andrew Pike, reflects on why we must all work together to ensure that every family affected receives the support it needs.
Tackling stigma within the Chinese community
Two years ago, Dementia UK partnered with the Chinese Welfare Trust to launch a new dementia specialist Admiral Nurse clinic to support Chinese and South-East Asian families. Admiral Nurse Emily Ka-Hei Lui reflects on the pilot service and its early achievements.