Health & Social Care: Risk Assessment Strategies for Dementia Patients

This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of risk assessment for a new dementia patient in a residential home, focusing on morning activities like gardening. It identifies potential hazards, such as falls and communication difficulties arising from cognitive impairment, and explores how these risks can harm both the patient and the nurse. The presentation details how risk assessments inform care planning and decision-making, particularly concerning patient safety, well-being, and meeting individual needs. Strategies to overcome these risks are discussed, including adequate resource allocation, staff training, financial support, appropriate equipment provision, and optimal staff ratios. The importance of effective communication, proper training for staff to manage dementia patients, and the need for a supportive environment are emphasized to ensure the safety and well-being of both patients and caregivers. The presentation concludes by referencing key studies that highlight the importance of these strategies in improving patient care.

Health and social care
 Presented by

Background:
 The purpose of the assignment is to identify the hazards in the
risk assessment regarding morning activity such as gardening of
a new patient in the residential home.
 The following presentation will focus on-
• Hazards related to risk assessment of a patient with dementia.
• Recognizing who might be harmed and how this will occur.
• Understanding the way in which risk assessment will inform care
planning.
• Strategies to overcome the risk.

Identify hazards in the risk
assessment
In the process of risk assessment of the patient with
dementia during gardening the nurses could face many
difficulties such as-
 There is a high risk of fall in case of dementia, thus the
patient may got minor to severe injury during gardening.
 Due to cognitive impairment the patient could face
difficulties in recognizing language thus the nurses could
fail to communicate with the patient in an effective
manner (Reamer 2013).

Identify hazards in the risk
assessment
 Due to the problem of lack of memory the patient may
come out of the residential home during gardening.
 The nurses face difficulties in case of limiting the free
movement of the patient.
 The nurse might face mental and verbal abuse.
 The restriction of the nurse may create irritation to the
patient, thus the patient could harm the nurse during
risk assessment (Reamer 2013).

Who might be harmed and how
this will occur
During risk assessment harm might be caused to both the patient and the nurse
as well.
Harm related to patient:
 The harm could occur to the patient as the patient has high risk of fall due to
dementia.
 Such incident of fall may results in minor to severe injuries like broken bones
and hip injury.
 The patient may got brain injury that could increase the severity of cognitive
impairment.
 Such injury could reduce the ability to move (Kales, Gitlin and Lyketsos 2015).

Who might be harmed and how
this will occur
Harm related to the nurse:
 Due to the continuous restriction to the free movement of the
patient the patient could become irritated thus could cause harm
to the nurse.
 Beside physical harm the nurse faces verbal abuse and mental
distress in this case (Kales, Gitlin and Lyketsos 2015).

How do risk assessment inform
care planning and decision
makingSuch process of risk assessment helps to understand the central
need of the patient thus helps to introduce effective
interventions in order to provide effective care service. For
example,
Safety :
 The risk assessment process helps to understand the factor
that could create harm to the patient and the nurse as well.
 helps to take proper initiatives regarding safety of the
patients and the staffs as well for example, improving
security system and monitoring process (Weaver et al. 2013).

How do risk assessment inform
care planning and decision
making
Well-being:
 From the risk assessment the risk factors related to the patient is
identified and the service providers work together to provide
effective care plan to improve the health and well-being of the
patient.
 For example effective physical activities, diet, medication and
care support could be provided according to the need of the
patient identified by the risk assessment (Scheepers et al. 2015).

How do risk assessment inform
care planning and decision
makingMeet the needs of the patient:
 The risk assessment process helps to take proper initiative in
order to meet the requirements of the patient.
 For example, effective equipment to support their mobility,
proper medication and activity in order to control aggressiveness
and appropriate attention to the patient.
 Such effort helps to meet the satisfaction level of the patient
regarding care service (Grol et al. 2013).

Strategies to overcome the risk:
Resource:
 Adequate resource like finance, medicine, food and proper
equipment should be present in the residential home to provide
effective care service and meet the requirements of the patient.
 It is important to consider that every patient have equal access
to the resources (Grol et al. 2013).

Strategies to overcome the risk:
Training:
 Proper training is important to provide to the staffs of the residential home so
that they could learn how to take care of a person with dementia.
 In the training session the staffs could learn effective communication process in
order to make the patient understand the treatment process.
 Improved communication skill of the staffs could help the patient to perform in
the risk assessment process in an effective manner.
 The staffs should be trained to keep accident book in order to maintain the past
record of the patient (Robson et al. 2013).

Strategies to overcome the risk:
Finance:
 Adequate funding should be available in the residential home in
order to avail resources.
 The residential home could take help of some NGOs and
government agencies in order to strengthen the financial support
(Grol et al. 2013).