Co-creating a video for training healthcare professionals in dementia

Abstract Introduction There are 400 thousand people living with dementia (PLWD) in Egypt. Most of the care for PLWD is delivered by family members. Healthcare Professionals (HCP) supporting these families need adequate training. Involving HCP in designing and producing training material ensures sustainability of these educational resources as their content will be socially and culturally relevant. Methods The first part of the project involved the lead author (OM) meeting with two geriatricians to identify common challenging situations in dementia. A short video for training HCP in dementia using these situations was produced, based on OM lived experience, and then shared with two old-age psychiatrists for comments. Feedback on the video was subsequently obtained via semi-structured interviews with 16 HCP (2 doctors, 1 nurse, 1 dietitian, 1 communication therapist, 2 social workers, and 9 clinical psychologists) either in person (3), over the phone (1), or virtually (12) approached in two institutions for ageing in Cairo and Alexandria in 2021. The video was finally checked by an adult psychiatrist for consistency with non-violent communication approaches. All interviews were analysed using a thematic framework. Comments and feedback were used to co-produce a final version of the video. Results From the initial co-design phase, six frequently-encountered situations were identified: anger, low mood, wandering, repetitive behaviour, refusing support with activities of daily living, and sleep disturbance. Five key qualities for appropriate response in these situations were agreed on: kindness, sensitivity, compassion, avoiding confrontation, and shared-decision making in activities of daily living. The subsequent co-production phase with 19 HCP resulted in an 18-minute: 43-seconds simulation video of six challenging interactions between PLWD and their carers. The video is now freely available on YouTube, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ylINBXZwH8M&feature=youtu.be Conclusions Involving healthcare professionals in dementia in co-creating a video for training their peers led to a freely available online educational resource.