Report overview:

This report details what the Care Commission and the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland found during joint visits to care homes caring for people with dementia. Care homes should make sure they give people with dementia the good quality care they need to live as independently as they can and lead as meaningful a life as possible. The report details what was found on visits to 30 care homes and to individual people with dementia who lived in them. It also outlines what the authors think should happen next, with recommendations for care home providers and managers and health and social care staff to improve dementia care in care homes for older people.

The report finds that some care homes had fallen seriously short of best practice and people with dementia were not always getting the best possible care to meet their needs. Ten key messages from the report include: care that respects the individual, activities and being part of the community, environment in which people live, managing money, health assessment, managing medication, managing challenging behaviour and the use of medication, legal matters and safeguards, consent to treatment, and staff knowledge and training.