Background to Dementia Pathways

Dementia Pathways was developed as part of the overall PREPARED project, overseen by Dr Tony Foley (Lecturer in Department of General Practice at UCC and GP at Kinsale Medical Centre, Cork). This was a national dementia research and education initiative which aimed to develop, deliver and evaluate training and education interventions to GPs and primary care clinicians and to contribute to:

  • Patients receiving optimal, evidence based dementia care in General Practice by GPs who are upskilled to assess, diagnose and care for patients with dementia, and who are empowered by clear, accessible dementia care pathways.
  • Patients recieving an integrated, collaborative dementia care response from a prepared, proactive Primary Care Team.

Between 2015 and 2019 the PREPARED project developed and delivered a range of dementia training and education initiatives, including:

  • The development of clinical guidance and educational resources, including decision support tools, guidance, care pathways and a database of supports and services, through the dementiapathways.ie website.
  • The development of a fully accredited 10 ECTs blended learning postgraduate module on dementia in primary care for GPs.  This course has run twice in 2017 and 2018 and 36 GPs have completed and passed the module.
  • The development and delivery of accredited practice-delivered dementia workshops for GPs focusing on diagnosis and post diagnostic care and on management of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia in primary care.  
  • Working with PCT and HSE colleagues, the development, piloting and evaluation of an interdisciplinary dementia learning workshop for primary care clinicians on dementia 
  • The preparation and publication of GP and PCT workshop facilitator guides and packs, a GP dementia clinical audit guide, and an revised edition of the ICGP Dementia: Diagnosis and Management in General Practice document
  • The development and launch of a fully online dementia education programme for GPs (in conjunction with the ICGP)
  • Underpinning research initiatives and evaluation activities

In April 2019, the responsibility for maintaining and updating the resources on the dementiapathways.ie website was taken on by the National Dementia Office,HSE.