HEC
CASCADE
Community Areas of Sustainable Care And Dementia Excellence in Europe
Total project value: 12,573,153.15 euros
A project involving 10 partners from the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands working together to find a holistic, person-centred approach to elderly dementia care. Project partners include: three universities, a hospital, healthcare providers, dementia expert centre, and local health and wellbeing community organisations.
The challenge
To provide care for the elderly and people living with dementia, with unmet needs to maximise their independence and respond to their different needs at different points in time. It must integrate them more closely with their communities in a manner that can be applied in different geographic & social settings with the emphasis on people living with dementia staying in their own homes for as long as possible in a safe and supported way.
About Cascade
CASCADE promotes the independence of people with dementia to live in their communities for as long as possible, living the life that they wish with the support they want. CASCADE creates a culture where questions are encouraged and solutions sought together.
A number of principles of the model are:
The CASCADE model of dementia care moves the focus away from the traditional caring role and moving towards an enabling role for staff leading to empowerment for the person living with dementia.
The CASCADE model of care always strives towards making the model fit the person not the person fit the model.
The focus in organisations that work according to the CASCADE model of care is on living with dementia, not giving up on life following diagnosis.
The CASCADE model of care has a focus on community integration and works to reduce/get rid of any stigma attached to dementia.
An essential aspect is listening to people and investing in getting to know the person, so they only need to tell their story once.
To make it possible for people living with dementia to continue to be integrated in community, the CASCADE model of care provides the necessary education and training, available to all and not just for health professionals.
Working within the CASCADE model of care means not just saying you are doing things differently and putting people’s individual choices, needs and preferences at the centre of the care, but actually living it.
In addition to the person with dementia, the CASCADE model focuses on all relatives involved. This group is called “People Living With Dementia”.
