Diagnosis Pathway ERG

The Diagnosis Pathway Expert Reference Group (DPERG) will:

  • commission the evaluation of existing pathways to diagnosis of dementia in the SW
  • map the professional competencies for the different functions of the diagnosis pathway, and
  • share learning from the diagnostic models for dementia, promoting an action learning approach.

The Dementia Network aims to improve the recognition, diagnosis and management of dementia within the South West of England.

Previous work has been undertaken to:

  • set standards for diagnosis for dementia
  • support delivery of Memory Assessment Services and improvement by means of peer review, and
  • enhance understanding, knowledge, and leadership in Primary Care for improvement of dementia care within the community.

The Dementia Network has identified the need for further work on the diagnostic pathway and proposes the formation of an Expert Reference Group to lead on this work.

Background

National strategic documents[1] have placed emphasis on the need for Primary Care to recognise those people who may have dementia and to refer them to appropriate memory assessment services for formal diagnosis.

There is also recognition that dementia can be seen as a long-term condition and that management and support is best placed within primary care. This raises the question of the role of primary care in diagnosis, and the possibility that for some people, primary care clinicians making a diagnosis may be appropriate.

Different models for diagnosis can summarised in the following three ways:

  1. Secondary care-led memory service
  2. Mixed model – delivered via partnership between voluntary and community sector, primary care and secondary care
  3. Primary care diagnosis pathway – delivered by GPs and primary health care teams

Within the South West examples can be found of each of these models. Different pathways have different benefits and challenges, and may be suited for different patients dependent on their different clinical, social and personal characteristics.

The challenge

The challenge is to ensure:

  • the pathway to diagnosis bests suits the needs of the person with symptoms, as an individual;
  • a robustness of diagnosis, meeting agreed standards;
  • agreed outcomes in terms of treatment, long term management, support and education for both service users and carers, and in particular the experience of the person with dementia and his/her family/carers;
  • clinicians, practitioners and other staff/supporters have the capabilities to perform the necessary functions within the pathway.

Proposed areas of work

During 2012-13 it is proposed that the DPERG will:

  • Commission the mapping and evaluation of pathways to diagnosis of dementia
  • Map the professional competencies for the different functions of the diagnosis pathway
  • Liaise with and learn from an education-led action-learning project that will work with existing diagnosis pathways and services within the South West. These projects aim to increase the role of primary care in the diagnostic pathway.
  • Consider recommendations for the future commissioning of diagnostic pathways, and the related professional capabilities required.

[1] Relevant strategic documents include

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>