This month, I was asked to address a team of Dementia Champions before their imminent launch of the Butterfly Scheme, partly to explain why their session at the launch would be longer than the sessions everyone else would be attending. I can see that this might seem illogical, given that they already have so much insight into dementia care.

When people understand how to deliver dementia care, they tend to fall into two categories – those who can see where others need help to understand, too, and those who can’t see why other people can’t do it, because it all seems so blindingly obvious to them! Even if you understand that others might need help in achieving appropriate dementia care, the vast majority of people wouldn’t know quite what to include in that onward guidance.

I remember, in the early days of the Butterfly Scheme, a matron saying (in a weary voice), “I’ve given the staff a huge pile of stuff about dementia, but they still don’t seem to get it”. I hope my voice didn’t sound quite as weary when I replied that the first thing I’d like her to do was to take the box away!

By background, I’m a teacher. When you’re teaching dementia care, you start by giving people skills which will quickly show them that their impact makes a positive difference; once they see that, they’re more inclined to want to add to that skill set. Overwhelm them, though, and they close down, deciding that the whole thing is far too complicated.

Dementia care isn’t complicated; we need some people to have enhanced skills, certainly, but for the majority of healthcare staff, a well-targeted set of basic insights and skills will make a huge difference, not only to the experience of people living with dementia, but also to the job satisfaction of the team. Key to that is the leadership given by the dementia champions – knowing how to enhance their team’s skills, rather than make them feel failures if something isn’t going well. When I’m teaching champions, I first want to give them insight into the Butterfly Scheme’s approach – but I also want to provide them with ways of supporting their team onward. Most people learn better from targeted, relevant examples, rather than textbooks, so the champions are enabled to know which examples will best help their team – and that’s why they’re taught for longer than everyone else.

I very much look forward to every session that helps more people to deliver insightful dementia care; it’s needed.