Role-Emerging Physiotherapy Placements in Dementia Care; a Service Improvement.
Physiotherapy role-emerging placements can occur at sites where there is minimal or no physiotherapy service or established physiotherapy role. Lack of physiotherapy provision has been identified in care home settings, and this lack impacts on the quality of care in managing complex physical and mental health conditions such as dementia.
The Care Home Liaison team uses a multi-disciplinary model to develop interventions to support individuals living with dementia to have positive lived experiences of the care home setting. However, where physical health is a component of the individual's mental well-being, the team is limited to over-stretched community physiotherapy services.
This gap in knowledge and practice highlights the unique role physiotherapy could offer in managing such a complex client group. Physiotherapists working in dementia care offer an important role in the management of physical conditions, together with promoting and maintaining mobility and function. This has a positive impact on the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia and so reduces the use of pharmacological interventions.
Role-emerging placements can highlight the value and impact physiotherapy has, and allows students to develop skills and experience in increasingly diverse, complex and evolving workplaces.