The Memory Support Worker (MSW) service is a ground-breaking development working with Primary Health Care Teams (General Practice) and specialist memory services in Leeds. MSWs are being deployed to provide service for people who either have a diagnosis of dementia, or are showing signs and symptoms that may indicate dementia across the City’s 13 neighbourhoods. This service redesign contributes to the process of assessing for dementia (alongside primary care-based psychiatrists and other memory service professionals) and then providing post-diagnosis support to ensure that patients are linked into appropriate supports such as community-based activities and carer groups.
HEDS is supporting stakeholders including Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Alzheimer’s Society in evaluating the cost-effectiveness of MSW service in terms of Return on Investment (ROI). This is a before and after study assessing changes in costs using matched electronic patient records with a population cohort of around 1000 patients newly diagnosed with dementia every year in Leeds. These include primary care, hospital and social care data. The evaluation will take the NHS and Personal and Social perspective.
This project is funded by Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Sciences Network (YHAHSN) as part of its current collaboration with HEDS. The project is due to be completed by December 2016.
